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THE   LIFE    OF 
LORD    EDWARD 
FITZGERALD      . 


.       .       THE    LIFE    OF       . 

LORD  EDWARD 
FITZGERALD  - 

!763— J798 
By     IDA    A.     TAYLOR 

Author  of  "  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  " 


^^tr^ 


WITH     SIXTEEN     FULL-PAGE    ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS    AND     A     PHOTOGRAVURE     PLATE 


New  York : 

BRENTANO'S 

London:   HUTCHINSON   &   CO. 

1904 


.       .      THE    LIFE    OF       .      . 

LORD  EDWARD 
FITZGERALD  - 

I763— 1798 
By     IDA    A.     TAYLOR    A 

Author  of  "  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  " 


•Oiv 


MAS6. 


'^  H,U 


WITH     SIXTEEN     FULL-PAGE    ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS    AND     A     PHOTOGRAVURE     PLATE 


New  York : 

BRENTANO'S 

London:    HUTCHINSON    &    CO. 

1904 


4274a 


PREFATORY    NOTE 


DESIRE,  in  publishing  the  present  volume,  to 
A  thank  the  editors  of  The  Nineteenth  Century  and 
After,  of  The  North  American  Review,  and  of  The 
English  Illustrated  Magazine,  for  permission  to  include 
in  it  portions  of  papers  on  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald, 
the  Irish  Informers,  and  Pamela,  which  appeared  in 
their  respective  Magazines. 

I  also  wish  to  thank  Mr.  Walter  Crane  for  his 
kindness  in  allowing  me  to  reproduce  his  design  upon 
the  cover  of  the  book  ;  Lord  Walter  FitzGerald 
for  valuable  information  and  help  with  regard  to 
portraits  and  illustrations  ;  Mr.  Strickland,  of  the 
National  Gallery  of  Ireland,  for  assistance  of  the 
same  kind  ;  Lord  Cloncurry  and  Mr.  BischorTsheim 
for  permission  to  reproduce  pictures  in  their  possession  ; 
and  Mr.  T.  W.  Rolleston  for  his  kindness  both  in 
revising  the  proofs  of  my  book  and  allowing  me  the 
use  of  his  photograph  of  St.  Werburgh's  Church. 

I.  A.  T. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    I 


PAGE 


Dublin  and  the  Geraldines — St.  Werburgh's  Church — Lord 
Edward  FitzGerald's  Grave — His  Career — A  Cause — Varying 
Estimates  of  his  Character — Unfitted  for  Leadership      .         .         I 

CHAPTER    II 

1763— 1781 

Birth  and  Parentage — The  Race  of  the  FitzGeralds — Features  of 
their  History — Lord  Edward's  Father  and  Mother — The 
Lennox  Family — Childhood — The  Duchess's  Second  Marriage 
— Boyhood  in  France — Commission  in  the  Army — America   .       12 

CHAPTER    III 

1781—1783 

The  American  War — Opinions  concerning  It — Lord  Edward 
at  Charleston — Active  Service — Dangerous  Escapade — 
Wounded  at  Eutaw  Springs — Tony — Early  Popularity — St. 
Lucia — Back  in  Ireland 33 

CHAPTER    IV 

1783— 1786 

Returned  to  Parliament — Life  in  Ireland — Tedium — The  Condition 
of  the  Country — Westminster  Election — Lord  Edward's  Family 
— Lord  Edward  in  Love — At  Woolwich — In  the  Channel 
Islands — Letters  to  his  Mother 46 


viii  Contents 

PAGE 

CHAPTER    V 

1786— 1788 

Lord  Edward  and  his  Mother — Increasing  Interest  in  Politics — 
The  Duke  of  Rutland  Viceroy — Lord  Edward's  Position  in 
Parliament  and  Outside  It — Visit  to  Spain — General  O'Hara       64 

CHAPTER    VI 

1788— 1789 

Lord  Edward  in  New  Brunswick — Second  Love  Affair — Letters 
to  his  Mother — Irish  Affairs — The  Duke  of  Leinster — Lord 
Edward  declines  to  seek  Promotion — Adventurous  Expedition 
— Native  Tribes — Disappointment — Return  Home  .         .       74 

CHAPTER    VII 

1790 — 1792 

Lord  Edward  offered  Command  of  the  Cadiz  Expedition — Refuses 
it  on  being  returned  to  Parliament — Decisive  Entry  on  Politics 
— In  London — Charles  James  Fox — Dublin — Condition  of 
Ireland — Whig  Club — Society  of  United  Irishmen — Thomas 
Paine  and  his  Friends — Lord  Edward  in  Paris        •         •         •       95 

CHAPTER    VIII 

Pamela — Her  Birth  and  Origin— Introduced  into  the  Orleans' 
Schoolroom — Early  Training— Madame  de  Genlis  and  the 
Orleans  Family — Visit  to  England — Southey  on  Pamela — 
Sheridan  said  to  be  Engaged  to  Pamela — Departure  for  France     1 1 5 

CHAPTER    IX 

1792 

Lord  Edward  in  Paris — Spirit  of  the  Revolution — Enthusiasm  in 
England  and  Ireland — Shared  by  Lord  Edward — Compro- 
mising Action  on  his  Part — Meeting  with  Pamela — The  Due 


Contents  « 

PAGE 

d'Orleans  and  Madame  de  Genlis — Marriage  of  Lord  Edward 

and  Pamela — Lord  Edward  Cashiered    .....     133 

CHAPTER    X 

1792— 1793 

Pamela  and  Lord  Edward's  Family — Her  Portrait — Effect  upon 
Lord  Edward  of  Cashierment — Catholic  Convention — Scene 
in  Parliament — Catholic  Relief  Bill — Lawlessness  in  the 
Country — Lord  Edward's  Isolation 152 

CHAPTER    XI 

1793— 1794 

Social  Position  affected  by  Political  Differences — Married  Life — 
Pamela's  Apparent  Ignorance  of  Politics — Choice  of  a  Home 
— Gardening — Birth  of  a  Son — Letters  to  the  Duchess  of 
Leinster — Forecasts  of  the  Future 169 

CHAPTER    XII 

1794— 1795 

Failing  Faith  in  Constitutional  Methods  ot  Redress — Lord 
Edward's  Relations  with  the  Popular  Leaders — His  Qualifi- 
cations for  Leadership — Jackson's  Career  and  Death — Minis- 
terial Changes — Lord  Fitzwilliam's  Viceroyalty — And  Recall 
— Lord  Camden  succeeds  Him— Arthur  O'Connor  .         .         .179 

CHAPTER    XIII 

1796 

Dangerous  State  of  the  Country — Protestants  and  Catholics — 
Savage  Military  Measures — Lord  Edward  joins  the  United 
Association — Its  Warlike  Character — The  "Bloody  Code" — 
Lord  Edward's  Speech  on  Insurrection  Act — Mission  of  Lord 
Edward  and  O'Connor  to  French  Government — Meeting  with 
Madame  de  Genlis — Hoche  and  Wolfe  Tone— Failure  of 
French  Expedition 196 


x  Contents 

PAGE 

CHAPTER    XIV 

1797 

Effects  of  the  French  Failure — United  Irishmen  and  Parliamentary 
Opposition — Attitude  of  Grattan — Lord  Castlereagh — Govern- 
ment Brutality — Lord  Moira's  Denunciation — Lord  Edward 
and  his  Family — Charge  against  Him — Meets  a  French  Envoy 
in  London — Insurrectionary  Projects       .        .        .        .         .212 

CHAPTER    XV 

Irish  Informers — "  Battalion  of  Testimony  " — Leonard  McNally — 
Thomas  Reynolds — Meeting  between  Reynolds  and  Lord 
Edward — Reynolds  and  Neilson — Curran's  Invective      .        .     232 

CHAPTER    XVI 

1798 

Lord  Edward's  Doom  Approaching — His  Portrait  at  this  Date — 
Personal  Attraction — Differences  among  the  Leaders — Delay 
of  French  Assistance — Arrest  of  O'Connor — His  Acquittal  and 
Imprisonment — National  Prospects — Reynolds's  Treachery — 
Arrest  of  the  Committee 245 

CHAPTER    XVII 

1798 

Excitement  in  Dublin — Pamela — Lord  Edward's  Family — Lord 
Castlereagh's  Sympathy — Lord  Edward's  Evasion — Various 
Reports — Reynolds's  Curious  Conduct — Meeting  of  Lord 
Edward  and  Pamela — Martial  Law — Lord  Edward's  Position 
— Spirit  in  which  he  met  It 262 

CHAPTER    XVIII 

1798 

Lord  Edward  in  Hiding — Hairbreadth  Escapes — Loyalty  and 
Treachery — In  Thomas   Street — Last  Visit    to   his   Wife — 


Contents  xi 

PAGE 

Insurrectionary  Plans — Higgins  and  Magan — Attempt  at 
Capture — Acquittal  of  Lord  Kingston — Lord  Edward  tracked, 
wounded,  and  taken  Prisoner 282 


CHAPTER    XIX 
1798 

Conduct  when  a  Prisoner — Various  Scenes  in  Dublin — Pamela — 
The  Facts  and  her  Account  of  Them  at  Variance — Her  After- 
life—Visit to  Barere— Death 305 

CHAPTER    XX 
1798 

Attempts  to  ensure  a  Fair  Trial — Prince  of  Wales — Conspiracy 
to  Rescue — Lord  Edward's  Condition — Harshness  of  the 
Government — Refusal  to  admit  his  Family — Change  for  the 
Worse — Last  Interview  with  Lady  Louisa  Conolly  and  his 
Brother— Death — And  Burial — Summing  Up.         .         .        .316 

APPENDIX    A 
Funeral  of  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald 335 

APPENDIX    B 
The  Bill  of  Attainder ;  337 

LIST   OF    PRINCIPAL   AUTHORITIES 339 

INDEX 341 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


LORD  EDWARD  FITZGERALD Frontispiece 

Page 

JAMES,    EARL  OF   KILDARE   (DUKE   OF   LEINSTER) l8 

EMILY,    COUNTESS  OF   KILDARE   (DUCHESS   OF   LEINSTER)      ....  24 

CARTON 47 

PARLIAMENT   HOUSE 68 

DEATH   MASK  OF  THEOBALD   WOLFE  TONE 107 

MISS   LINLEY   (MRS.    SHERIDAN)   AS   ST.    CECILIA 126 

RICHARD   BRINSLEY   SHERIDAN 131 

PAMELA 154 

LEINSTER   HOUSE 177 

ARTHUR   O'CONNOR 192 

VISCOUNT  CASTLEREAGH 218 

LORD  EDWARD   FITZGERALD 247 

PAMELA   (LADY  EDWARD   FITZGERALD)   AND   CHILD 272 

ST.    CATHERINE'S   CHURCH   AND  THOMAS   STREET 302 

LORD   HENRY  FITZGERALD ,           .  325 

SOUTH   WALL  OF  ST.    WERBURGH'S   CHURCH 332 

xii 


LIFE    OF 

LORD    EDWARD    FITZGERALD 

CHAPTER    I 

Dublin  and  the  Geraldines — St.  Werburgh's  Church — Lord 
Edward  FitzGerald's  Grave — His  Career — A  Cause — 
Varying  Estimates  of  his  Character — Unfitted  for  Leader- 
ship. 

NEAR   the    east  gate — formerly  the   gate  of  St. 
Mary    Les    Dames — of  the    city    of    Dublin 
stand  a  group  of  buildings  notable  indeed. 

Near  by  is  the  Castle,  with  all  its  historical  and 
political  associations,  past  and  present.  A  stone's 
throw  removed  is  the  sombre  edifice  whose  foundation 
dates  from  the  days  of  faith  when,  "  about  the  year 
of  our  Lord  1038,  the  Danish  Prince  of  Dublin 
gave  to  Donat,  Bishop  of  that  see,  a  place  to  erect 
a  church  to  the  honour  of  the  Holy  Trinity."  So 
the  Black  Book  of  Christchurch  records  the  first  gift 
to  the  famous  Priory  of  the  Trinity,  now  known  as 
Christchurch  Cathedral.  Again,  in  close  proximity 
to  the  priory  (where  in  1562  the  monument  of  another 
alien,   this   time  of  Norman   blood,   Earl    Strongbow, 

I 


2  xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3<3etalo 

was  broken  and  repaired)  the  City  Hall  has  replaced, 
by  a  double  secularisation,  Cork  House,  on  the  con- 
secrated ground  where  once  stood  the  Convent  and 
Church  of  St.  Mary  Les  Dames  ;  while,  last  of  the 
group,  at  an  almost  equal  distance  from  the  Castle 
on  the  farther  side,  the  modern  Church  of  St. 
Werburgh,  with  its  eighteenth-century,  pseudo-classic 
frontage,  its  railed-in  pavement  and  gaslit  portico, 
remains  to  tell  that  once  an  Anglo-Norman  foundation 
imported  from  over  the  sea  the  name  and  fame 
of  Saint  Werberga,  sometime — in  those  remote  ages 
when  blood-royalty  and  sainthood  went  hand-in-hand — 
Princess  of  East  Anglia  and  Abbess,  as  her  mother 
and  grandmother  before  her,  of  the  Monastery  of 
Ely. 

Close  neighbours,  these  three  religious  houses  shared 
with  the  Castle  many  a  memory  of  past  days  ;  and 
amongst  these  memories  is  ever  and  again  recurrent 
the  name  of  Ireland's  foster-sons,  the  Geraldines.  To 
them  she  gave  true  birthrights.  With  her  traditions, 
her  stones,  her  sepulchres,  and  her  dust,  their  race 
is  associated  beyond  possibility  of  severance. 

In  the  Castle  FitzGerald  after  FitzGerald  ruled, 
whether  as  the  King's  Deputy  or  despite  of  him.  In 
the  Castle,  too,  one  after  another  lay  imprisoned.  In 
the  Priory  close  at  hand  was  entombed  Maurice 
FitzGerald,  Earl  of  Kildare,  dead  in  1390 — once  a 
prisoner  in  the  Castle,  afterwards  Deputy  there. 
Little  more  than  a  century  later,  in  the  choir  of 
the   same    church,    St.    Mary's    Chapel   was    built    by 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3Fit3<Seralo  3 

another  Earl  Gerald,  who,  dying  the  following  year, 
1 51 3,  bequeathed  "his  best  gown  of  gold  and  purple 
to  make  dresses  for  the  priests,"  already  endowed  by 
him  with  vestments  of  cloth-of-gold,  a  yearly  com- 
memoration, with  other  spiritual  privileges,  being 
accorded  to  the  donor  and  doubtless  observed  for 
many  a  year.  In  the  Priory,  not  a  score  of  years 
earlier,  this  same  Gerald  must  have  borne  a  leading 
part  in  the  ceremony  when — our  Lady's  statue 
in  the  adjacent  Convent-church  of  St.  Mary  Les 
Dames  lending  her  crown  for  the  occasion — the  poor 
puppet-king,  Lambert  Simnel,  "  well  faced  and  princely 
shaped,  and  of  no  very  evil  nature,"  was  crowned, 
with  feasting  and  triumphing  and  mighty  shouts 
and  cries  ;  and,  the  pageant  ended,  was  borne  "  on 
tall  men's  shoulders,"  and  doubtless  accompanied  by 
the  FitzGerald  brothers — Deputy  and  Chancellor  at  the 
time — his  chief  supporters,  to  the  King's  Castle.  In 
the  Priory,  again,  the  rebel  nobles,  Kildare  at  their 
head,  received  the  royal  pardon  under  the  Great  Seal, 
the  oath  of  allegiance  taken  by  the  Earl  upon  a  Host 
consecrated  by  the  English  chaplain,  lest  even  in  this 
solemnity  deception  might  be  practised  and  the  pledge 
rendered  a  nullity. 

Scenes  like  this,  with  their  vivid  medievalism,  will 
recur  no  more  in  the  quarter  of  the  city  where 
Christchurch,  the  King's  Castle,  and  the  City  Hall 
recall  or  obscure  the  remembrance  of  the  past.  The 
Priory,  with  its  vestments  of  purple  and  gold,  is 
become    the    cathedral    church    of  a    faith    which    has 


4  %tfc  ot  Xoufc  Efcwarfc  fftt3®eralt> 

discarded  purple  and  gold — and  much  else  beside. 
St.  Mary  Les  Dames  is  dispossessed,  not  only  of  her 
crown,  but  of  her  nuns,  her  convent,  her  chapel, 
and  her  worshippers  ;  and  her  parish,  as  far  back  as 
the  sixteenth  century,  was  incorporated  with  that  of 
St.  Werberga.  But  St.  Werburgh's  Church — even  the 
St.  Werburgh's  of  to-day,  with  its  Corinthian  columns 
and  classic  portico,  has  still  one  tradition  to  hand  on  : 
a  tradition  which  links  the  chivalries  of  the  past, 
chivalries  armoured  and  helmed,  lance  in  rest  and 
banners  flying,  with  the  chivalries  of  new  centuries 
of  hope  and  aspiration  and  sacrifice,  hope  with 
no  coloured  visions,  aspiration  shorn  of  glamour, 
sacrifice  without  its  ritual  of  palm  and  crown.  For 
beneath  the  chancel  of  the  church  dedicated  to  the 
Anglian  saint  lies  Edward  FitzGerald  ;  while  without, 
in  a  piece  of  burying-ground  belonging  to  his  family, 
by  a  coincidence  as  strange  as  that  which  placed  Lord 
Castlereagh's  monument  near  that  of  Grattan  in 
Westminster,  is  the  tomb  of  Charles  Henry  Sirr,  from 
whose  hand  Lord  Edward  received  the  wound  of 
which  he  died. 

Ireland  gives  to  her  sons  many  gifts  and  great ; 
and,  giving  much,  she  requires  from  them  also  much. 
To  the  Geraldines  of  old  she  gave  her  loves,  her 
hates,  her  blood,  and  her  soul,  receiving  from  them  in 
return  fair  chapels,  loyalty  to  her  faith,  devotion  to 
her  nationality.  To  Edward  FitzGerald  she  gave  her 
last  gift — a  dream  ;  and  he,  for  her  gift — greater  love 
hath  no  man  than  this  —  laid  down  his  life. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffft3(Beralo  5 

To  place  a  death,  as  it  were,  as  the  headline  of  a 
life,  and  a  grave  as  its  frontispiece,  might  seem  to 
reverse  the  natural  order  of  things.  But  it  is  precisely 
the  close  of  Lord  Edward's  career  which  has  riveted 
upon  him  for  a  hundred  years  the  gaze  of  his  country- 
men ;  and  of  him,  as  of  another,  it  may  be  said  that, 
in  their  eyes,  no  action  of  his  life  became  him  like 
the  leaving  it.  It  is,  in  fact,  his  title  to  a  place 
in  history. 

At  first  sight  Lord  Edward's  story  presents  only 
another  monument  of  failure,  vowed  as  he  was  to  the 
service  of  a  cause  predestined  to  disaster,  and,  further- 
more, dead  before  it  had  been  granted  to  him  to  strike 
so  much  as  a  blow  in  its  defence.  But  there  is 
another  reading  to  the  record,  and  Fate  is  more  just 
in  her  dealings  than  it  sometimes  appears.  The  gift 
of  a  cause  is  in  itself  no  small  one,  and  who  shall 
determine  whether,  the  character  of  the  man  being 
taken  into  account,  the  price  exacted  for  it  was  dis- 
proportionately great  ? 

It  is,  however,  necessary  to  distinguish.  If  he  was 
essentially  a  man  with  a  cause,  he  was  in  no  wise  a 
fanatic.  To  some  men  it  chances  to  possess  their 
cause  ;  to  others  to  be  possessed  by  it.  To  some, 
again,  it  is,  so  far  as  choice  can  be  said  to  be  a  factor 
at  all  in  the  lives  of  men,  the  result  of  free  election  ; 
while  there  are  others  to  whom  it  might  almost  appear 
that  no  alternative  has  been  offered,  in  whose  case 
the  attempt  to  elude  the  destiny  prepared  for  them 
would  be  as  vain  as  the  endeavour  to  escape  from  some 


6  %itc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit36eralo 

doom  which,  pronounced  upon  them  at  birth,  would 
be  found,  like  Asrael,  the  Angel  of  Death  in  the  Eastern 
legend,  awaiting  them,  wherever  they  might  fly. 

It  was  to  this  last  class  that  Edward  FitzGerald 
belonged.  Single-hearted  and  loyal  as  was  his  devotion 
to  his  country  and  his  country's  cause,  it  would  be 
a  misapprehension  to  confuse  him  with  those  comrades 
to  whom  the  enfranchisement  of  their  native  land  had 
been,  from  youth  up,  the  one  engrossing  preoccupation 
of  life,  and  who  formed  a  group  bound  together  by 
the  closest  ties  of  association,  of  class,  and  of  interest. 

Between  Lord  Edward  and  such  men — men  of  the 
stamp  of  Wolfe  Tone,  his  friend  Russell,  Emmet, 
McNevin,  and  the  rest — cordial  as  were  their  relations 
during  those  later  years  in  the  course  of  which  he 
was  being  drawn  into  the  stream  which  was  hurrying 
them  on  towards  revolution,  there  was  nevertheless 
a  gulf  which,  bridged  over  as  it  was  by  a  common 
aim  and  a  common  political  interest,  could  not  but 
leave  them  in  a  measure  apart.  To  the  patriots  who 
were  represented  by  Wolfe  Tone,  the  one  absorbing 
object  removed,  life  would  have  held  but  little  meaning. 
To  Lord  Edward,  on  the  other  hand,  dedicated  to 
that  object  as  were  the  closing  years  of  his  brief 
manhood,  it  constituted,  taking  his  life  as  a  whole, 
but  one  aim  out  of  many,  a  single  thread,  however 
shining  and  important,  in  the  texture  of  a  many- 
coloured  woof.  It  was  by  the  gradual  elimination 
of  rival,  if  not  conflicting,  interests  that  the  ultimate 
domination   of  that    which   was    to    prove    paramount 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfft30eralo  7 

was  assured.  Lover,  soldier,  and  patriot  by  turns, 
though  it  is  in  the  last  character  alone  that  he  has 
won  a  place  in  the  remembrance  of  men,  he  brought 
almost  equal  enthusiasm  to  bear  upon  each  pursuit. 
The  enterprise  in  which  he  met  his  death  was 
embraced  in  precisely  the  same  gallant  and  irre- 
sponsible spirit  of  adventure,  though  combined  with 
an  invincible  faith  in  the  justice  of  his  cause  and  a 
more  serious  purpose,  which  led  him  to  imperil  his 
life  in  a  harebrained  exploit  during  the  American 
war  or  to  traverse  wildernesses  in  Canada  hitherto 
unexplored. 

It  is  true  that  it  is  not  altogether  an  easy  matter, 
oppressed  by  the  sense  of  coming  tragedy — a  tragedy 
all  the  darker  for  the  setting  in  which  it  is  framed 
and  from  the  very  nature  of  the  victim — to  avoid 
allowing  the  shadow  to  fall  backwards,  and  to  cast 
its  sombre  tints  over  days  troubled  by  no  foreboding. 
But  to  do  so  is  at  once  to  lose  the  true  atmosphere 
by  which  Lord  Edward's  life  was  pervaded,  the  bright 
and  light-hearted  daring  which  does  not  so  much 
disregard  danger  as  forget  it,  and  makes  its  sacrifices 
with  a  spontaneous  and  reckless  generosity  which  is 
almost  unreflecting. 

The  mistake  made  by  some  of  those  whose  ad- 
miration has  been  warmest  has  been  of  this  nature. 
They  have  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  amongst  his 
most  distinctive  traits  was  the  gaiety  with  which  he 
faced  the  crises  of  life,  great  and  small — a  gaiety 
not  incompatible,  especially  in  those  of  his  race,  with 


8  OLife  of  3Loro  Eowavo  ffit3<5eralo 

complete  earnestness  of  purpose  and  passionate  con- 
viction ;  but  incomprehensible  to  men  of  more 
ponderous  temper,  and  possibly  perplexing  to  those 
of  more  concentrated  aims.  Thus  one  writer  is  found 
adverting  to  the  reverence  inspired  by  the  "  solemn 
religious  enthusiasm  "  belonging  to  his  character  ;  while 
a  tone  approaching  deprecation  is  discernible  in  the 
explanation  offered  by  Dr.  Madden  of  the  levity  of 
his  bearing  at  the  very  crisis  of  his  fate,  when  not  only 
life  and  liberty,  but  the  entire  issue  of  the  enter- 
prise of  which  he  was  leader,  were  at  stake.  It  was 
his  habit,  says  this  apologist,  to  "appear"  in  his  usual 
spirits,  "apparently'"  light-hearted  and  easily  amused; 
leaving  it  to  be  inferred  from  the  italics  that  this 
gaiety  was  nothing  but  a  mask,  assumed  at  will.  The 
theory  is  as  widely  at  variance  with  the  openness 
and  simplicity  of  his  nature  as  the  assertions  of  a 
writer  less  favourably  disposed  towards  him,  who 
declared  him  to  have  artfully  concealed  his  trait- 
orous designs  under  the  cover  of  his  amiable  manners 
and  conduct,  to  have  fascinated  all  his  acquaintance 
into  unqualified  confidence,  and  to  have  sought  to 
disguise  his  treason  under  the  shield  of  the  sublimest 
virtue  and  patriotism. 

The  one  view  is  no  less  erroneous  than  the  other. 
So  far  as  it  is  possible  to  judge  from  the  evidence 
that  remains,  what  Lord  Edward  appeared  to  be, 
that  he  was.  There  are  natures  so  complex  that  it 
is  a  difficult  matter  for  even  their  contemporaries  to 
hazard    an    opinion    upon     them,    to    adventure    with 


Xife  of  Xorb  Eowaro  ffft3<Beralo  9 

any  assurance  a  conjecture  as  to  the  motives  by  which 
they  are  swayed,  or  to  reconcile  the  man  and  his 
actions.  But  Lord  Edward  was  not  one  of  these. 
There  was  a  singleness  and  a  transparence  about  his 
character  which  forced  upon  men  of  the  most  opposite 
views  the  recognition  of  its  main  features,  and  amongst 
those  best  qualified  to  judge  a  rare  consonance  of 
opinion  on  the  subject  is  found.  On  his  gallantry 
and  courage,  his  unblemished  personal  integrity,  the 
sincerity  of  his  ardour,  his  loyalty  to  the  cause  he 
had  made  his  own,  and  the  rare  and  sunny  sweetness 
of  his  disposition,  scarcely  a  doubt  has  been  cast, 
even  by  those  whose  natural  bias  would  have  inclined 
them  to  take  an  unfavourable  view  of  the  leader  of 
the  movement  in  which  he  was  engaged.  Thus  a 
political  opponent,  Henry  MacDougall,  who  published 
in  the  year  1799  an  account  of  the  persons  concerned 
in  the  "  foul  and  sanguinary  conspiracy  "  which  had 
just  been  crushed,  describes  the  young  commander- 
in-chief  of  that  foul  conspiracy  as  "the  delight  and 
pride  of  those  who  knew  him  (this  truly  unfortunate 
circumstance  of  his  life  excepted),  nor  did  there  ever 
exist  in  the  estimation  of  his  friends  a  more  noble 
youth,  a  braver  gentleman  "  ;  and  if  it  is  true  that 
the  absence  of  bitterness  amongst  his  Irish  opponents 
may  have  been  in  part  due  to  the  glamour  clinging 
to  the  figure  of  a  Geraldine,  those  to  whom  no 
suspicion  of  national  prejudice  can  attach  are  at  one 
with  his  countrymen  in  this  respect,  and  few  are  the 
stones  which  have  been  cast  at  his  personal  character. 


to  Xife  of  Xovo  Eowaro  jfft3<Beralo 

In  his  capacity  of  political  leader,  however,  it  was 
another  matter.  Here  he  suffered  to  a  marked  degree 
from  "  les  defauts  de  ses  qualites."  A  worse  man 
would  have  made  a  better  conspirator  ;  and  amongst 
all,  save  such  as  are  pledged  to  allow  no  failing  or 
deficiency  to  mar  the  portrait  of  their  hero,  there  is 
as  full  a  concurrence  of  opinion  concerning  his  un- 
fitness for  the  part  he  was  set  to  play  as  with  regard 
to  the  stainlessness  of  his  honour.  An  authority 
vouched  for  by  Madden  as  being  better  acquainted 
with  him  perhaps  than  any  other  of  his  associates, 
while  bearing  witness  to  the  nobility  of  his  character, 
his  freedom  from  selfishness,  meanness,  or  duplicity, 
and  to  his  frankness  and  generosity,  yet  denied  his 
capacity  to  conduct  a  revolution ;  Reinhard,  French 
Minister  to  the  Hanseatic  towns,  and  a  most  friendly 
critic  of  the  envoy  who  had  been  sent  to  open  negotia- 
tions with  his  Government,  while  declaring  himself 
ready  to  answer  for  the  young  man's  sincerity  with  his 
head — a  compliment,  it  may  be  observed,  which  Lord 
Edward  would  not  have  reciprocated — added  that 
he  was  wholly  unsuited  to  be  leader  of  an  enterprise 
or  chief  of  a  party  ;  and,  to  quote  an  observer  in  a 
very  different  sphere,  the  informer  Cox,  while  adding 
his  testimony  to  Lord  Edward's  zeal,  declared  him, 
at  the  same  time,  unfit  to  command  a  sergeant's 
guard. 

Such  would  seem  to  be  the  general  verdict,  con- 
temporary and  posthumous,  and  one  borne  out  by 
the    issue    of   the   struggle   in  which  he   was   engaged 


Xife  ot  Xorfc  JEfcwarfc  jfitsCBeralb  n 

and  his  failure  to  carry  it  to  a  successful  conclusion. 
It  was  a  verdict  in  which — since  neither  vanity  nor 
arrogance  are  to  be  counted  amongst  his  failings — 
he  would  himself  in  all  probability  have  concurred. 
It  was  part  of  the  gallantry  of  his  disposition  not  to 
shrink  from  responsibility  when  it  was  thrust  upon 
him.  But  it  was  his  misfortune,  and,  according  as 
it  is  regarded,  the  misfortune  or  the  salvation  of  his 
country,  that  he  was  forced  into  a  position  which 
he  was  not  competent  to  fill.  The  incongruity  of 
the  man  and  of  the  situation  lends  half  its  tragedy 
to  the  melancholy  story. 


CHAPTER   II 

i763_i78i 

Birth  and  Parentage — The  Race  of  the  FitzGeralds — Features 
of  their  History — Lord  Edward's  Father  and  Mother — 
The  Lennox  Family — Childhood — The  Duchess's  Second 
Marriage — Boyhood  in  France — Commission  in  the  Army 
— America. 

LORD  EDWARD  FITZGERALD,  fifth  son  and 
twelfth  child  of  the  twentieth  Earl  of  Kildare 
and  first  Duke  of  Leinster,  was  born  in  London  on 
October  15th,  1763. 

The  period  during  which  his  short  life  was  to  be 
passed — not  thirty-five  years  in  all — was  a  stormy  one 
for  Ireland.  It  was  a  time  when  the  brooding  resent- 
ment over  the  wrongs  of  centuries  was  gathering  to  a 
head,  and  sullen  submission  was  being  exchanged  for 
fierce  and  passionate  resistance  ;  a  time  when  injuries 
were  inflicted  in  the  name  of  religion  ;  when  tyranny 
was  begetting  violence,  and  oppression  brutality  ;  and 
when  men,  despairing  of  justice,  were  taking  the 
vindication  of  their  rights,  as  well  as  vengeance  for 
their  wrongs,  into  their  own  hands. 

The  story  has  been  told  often  enough,  now  from 
one  point  of  view,  now  from  another  ;  and  it  is   not 


Xife  of  Xoro  Ebwaro  dfit3<Bctalt>  13 

intended  to  offer  a  further  repetition  of  it  here,  except 
in  so  far  as  it  may  be  necessary  for  the  purposes  of 
purely  personal  narrative. 

Nor  does  it  come  within  the  compass  of  the  present 
work  to  dwell  otherwise  than  briefly  upon  the  race 
from  which  the  subject  of  it  sprang.  To  give  a 
consecutive  account,  however  incomplete,  of  the 
Geraldines,  of  their  dogged  resistance  to  English  rule, 
their  forced  submissions,  and  their  renewed  revolts, 
would  be,  it  has  been  said,  to  epitomise  the  history  of 
their  entire  nation — a  nation  whose  annals,  unconnected 
and  episodical,  "  are  like  the  scenes  of  a  tragedy  whose 
author  had  much  imagination  but  no  art" — and  would 
occupy  more  space  than  can  be  afforded  here. 

It  is  with  a  certain  "  Dominus  Otho  "  that  the  story 
begins  ;  who,  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  Gherardini 
of  Florence,  passed  into  England  by  way  of  Normandy, 
and  is  found  holding  the  rank  of  "honorary  Baron" 
there  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Confessor. 

The  descendants  of  Lord  Otho  did  not  remain  for 
long  rooted  on  the  eastern  side  of  St.  George's  Channel. 
About  the  year  1169 — before  Strongbow  had  made 
good  his  footing  in  Ireland — two  half-brothers,  Maurice 
FitzGerald  and  Robert  FitzStephen,  crossed  over,  on 
the  invitation  of  the  King  of  Leinster,  to  help  him 
against  his  foes,  were  invested  by  him  with  the  lordship 
of  Wexford,  and  so  were  established  on  Irish  soil.1 

For  a  certain  time  it  would  seem  that  the  tradition 

1  From  this  Maurice  not  only  the  Earls  of  Kildare,  but  their  kinsmen 
the  Earls  of  Desmond  traced  their  descent. 


i4  %ifc  of  Xorfc  Efcwarb  jfft3(Beral& 

of  loyalty  to  the  English  throne  was,  though  inter- 
mittently, observed  by  the  Geraldines,  their  services 
rendered  to  Edward  III.  in  his  contest  with  the  Bruce 
having  been  such  as  to  be  rewarded,  in  the  year  131 6, 
with  the  earldom  of  Kildare.  But  as  years  went  by 
and  the  original  connection  with  England  grew  more 
remote,  they  proved  less  and  less  submissive  vassals  of 
the  Crown  ;  and  though  frequently  holding  high  office 
in  Ireland,  they  are  constantly  found  suffering  imprison- 
ment or  disgrace,  for  offences  real  or  imputed,  and 
acccused,  on  one  occasion  at  least,  of  "  alliance,  fosterage, 
and  alterage  with  the  King's  Irish  enemies,"  from  whom, 
however,  they  continued  to  the  end  to  be  held   distinct. 

As  early  as  the  fourteenth  century  a  General 
Assembly  was  called  together  at  Kilkenny  by  Maurice, 
Earl  of  Kildare,  and  others,  in  opposition  to  the 
Parliament  summoned  to  meet  in  Dublin,  Earl  Maurice 
suffering  a  subsequent  term  of  imprisonment  ;  and 
under  the  Tudor  kings  the  Earls  of  Kildare  continued 
to  display  the  same  features  of  turbulence  and  insub- 
ordination ;  open  revolt  alternating  with  perfunctory 
acts  of  submission  which  plainly  bore  the  character 
of  mere  provisional  concessions  to  necessity. 

The  history  of  Earl  Gerald,  in  particular,  dating 
from  1477,  might  almost  be  taken  as  typical  of  the 
relations  existing  between  the  English  kings  and  their 
"  cousins  the  Earls  of  Kildare."  Invested  with  the 
office  of  Deputy,  he  persisted  in  retaining  it,  in  spite 
of  dismissal  ;  and,  calling  together  a  Parliament,  was 
confirmed  by  it  in  his  post.     It  was  this  same  Gerald, 


Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  tfit3(Beralo  15 

too,  who  headed  the  Irish  nobles  in  their  attempt  to 
place  Simnel  upon  the  throne  ;  and  when  the  enterprise 
had  ended  in  disaster,  and  letters  had  been  sent  to 
England  to  demand  a  pardon,  the  nature  of  his 
submission  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  the  petition 
presented  to  the  King's  envoy  by  the  citizens  of 
Waterford,  who,  fearing  lest  vengeance  might  be 
wreaked  upon  them  by  the  pardoned  man  in  conse- 
quence of  their  refusal  to  join  in  the  rebellion,  entreated 
that  they  might  be  exempted  from  his  jurisdiction  as 
Deputy. 

Two  years  later,  summoned  to  meet  the  King,  the 
great  Irish  nobles,  Kildare  at  their  head,  repaired  to 
Greenwich  ;  when  Henry  VII.,  telling  them  good- 
humouredly  that  a  they  would  at  last  crown  apes, 
should  he  be  long  absent,"  entertained  them  at  a 
banquet  at  which  the  ex-King  Simnel  played  the  part 
of  butler. 

Again  the  scene  shifts.  Five  years  more  and  the 
banqueting-hall  is  replaced  by  the  council-chamber  ; 
where  Earl  Gerald,  an  attainted  man,  is  undergoing 
his  trial,  one  of  the  offences  of  which  he  stands  accused 
relating  to  the  burning  of  Cashel  Cathedral,  in  con- 
sequence of  a  feud  with  the  Archbishop,  now  present 
in  person  to  prove  the  charge. 

"  By  my  troth,"  answered  the  Earl,  "I  would  never 
have  done  it,  but  I  thought  the  Bishop  was  in  it." 

The  King  laughed,  pleased,  it  would  seem,  with 
the  bold  retort  ;  and  when  the  Bishop  of  Meath,  also 
present,  exclaimed  that  all  Ireland  could  not  rule  this 


1 6  %ife  of  %ovb  Ebwarfc  jfit3(3eral& 

man,  "  Then  he  shall  rule  all  Ireland,"  was  Henry's 
rejoinder.  He  kept  his  word.  Earl  Gerald  went 
home  a  free  man,  restored  to  all  his  honours,  and 
Lord  Deputy  besides. 

His  successor,  another  Gerald,  held  hostage  in 
England  for  his  father's  good  faith,  had  been  present 
at  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  apparently  in  favour 
with  Henry  VIII.  Summoned  from  Ireland,  however, 
later  on,  to  answer  charges  preferred  against  him,  he 
found  a  lodging  in  the  Tower  ;  and  a  report  gaining 
currency  that  his  execution  was  to  follow,  his  son 
Thomas,  not  more  than  twenty  years  old — a  young 
man,  according  to  the  chronicler,  of  considerable 
personal  attraction  and  "  not  devoid  of  wit,  were  it 
not,  as  it  fell  out  in  the  end,  that  a  fool  had  the 
keeping  thereof" — promptly  resigned  the  Vice-deputy- 
ship,  with  which  he  had  been  entrusted  in  his  father's 
absence  ;  and,  joined  by  two  of  his  uncles,  headed  an 
insurrection. 

The  folly,  if  such  it  were,  of  Lord  Thomas  cost 
his  family  dear.  Not  only,  if  the  explanation  given 
of  his  death  is  to  be  credited,  did  his  father  die  of 
grief  in  his  prison  and  find  a  foreign  grave  in  the 
Tower,  but  five  of  his  uncles,  after  the  thorough  and 
wholesale  fashion  of  the  day,  were  included  in  the 
sentence  passed  upon  him ;  and  this  though  Holinshed 
declares  that  three  of  the  number  were  known  to 
have  been  opposed  to  his  design.  "  But  the  enemies 
of  their  house,"  adds  the  historian,  "incensed  the 
King  sore  against  it,   persuading  him  that  he  should 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<Beralo  17 

never    conquer    Ireland    so    long    as    any    Geraldines 
breathed  in  the  country." 

Six  of  the  family,  therefore,  suffered  together  at 
Tyburn,  affording  signal  contradiction  to  the  proud 
old  boast,  to  the  effect  that  Death  himself,  in  un- 
assisted sovereignty  and  by  means  of  no  human 
instrument,  would  alone  venture  to  lay  hands  upon 
a  Geraldine  : 

Who  killed  Kildare  ? 
Who  dared  Kildare  to  kill? 

Death  killed  Kildare, 
Who  dares  kill  who  he  will. 

But  the  work  of  extermination  had,  after  all,  been 
incomplete.  Gerald  FitzGerald,  a  young  half-brother 
of  the  chief  culprit,  Lord  Thomas,  only  twelve  years 
old  at  the  time,  as  well  as  a  still  younger  child, 
escaped  the  general  massacre,  and  lived  to  perpetuate 
the  race,  one  more  chapter  having  been  added  to  the 
record  of  Ireland's  wrongs. 

The  history  of  the  Kildare  branch  of  the  Fitz- 
Geralds  from  this  date  becomes  less  noteworthy.  The 
King's  advisers  had  possibly  been  wise  in  their  genera- 
tion, and  the  old  fighting  spirit  of  the  Geraldines  in 
a  measure  broken  by  that  sixfold  execution  at  Tyburn. 
The  family,  indeed,  had  been  left  by  it  so  popular 
that  Robert  Cowley,  writing  to  the  Secretary  Cromwell 
in  1539,  declared  the  English  Pale,  except  the  towns 
and  very  few  of  the  "  possessionem,"  to  be  "  so 
affectionate  to  the  Geraldines  that  they  covet  more 
to  see  a  Geraldine  to  reign  and  triumph  than  to  see 


1 8  xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3<Beralo 

God  come  among  them  "  ;  but  a  long  minority,  passed 
by  the  young  earl  chiefly  abroad,  and  followed  by  a 
reconciliation  with  King  Edward  VI.  and  an  English 
marriage,  paved  the  way  for  a  more  peaceful  future  ; 
and  his  successors,  unlike  their  Desmond  cousins, 
are  for  the  most  part  found  ranged  upon  the  English 
side  in  the  periodical  rebellions  by  which  Irish  history 
was  marked.  Thus  Gerald,  fourteenth  earl,  fought 
for  Elizabeth  against  Tyrone,  and  was  pensioned  by 
the  English  Queen  ;  George,  called  the  Fairy  Earl, 
by  reason  of  his  low  stature,  took  part  with  the 
English  against  the  Catholics,  banded  together  under 
Owen  Roe  O'Neill ;  while,  though  supporters  of  the 
Restoration,  the  FitzGeralds  became  partisans  of 
William  of  Orange  against  the  Stewart  King  and 
his  Irish  adherents. 

When  Lord  Edward  was  born,  however,  more  than 
two  centuries  after  Thomas  FitzGerald  had  paid,  at 
Tyburn,  the  penalty  of  his  rashness,  the  Geraldines, 
though  times  and  methods  had  changed,  were  counted 
amongst  the  upholders  of  the  rights  of  the  people  ; 
Lord  Edward's  own  father,  "  loved  Kildare " — so 
called  by  reason  of  the  affection  borne  him  by  the 
nation — having  come  forward  some  years  earlier  to 
protest,  though  in  more  peaceful  fashion  than  his 
ancestors,  against  the  abuses  incident  to  English  rule. 

Guarding  himself  against  the  imputation  of  in- 
terested motives  by  the  explicit  declaration  that  for 
himself  and  his  friends  he  had  nothing  to  solicit, 
that  he  sought  neither  place,  employment,  nor  prefer- 


i 

i 

> 

1                                           fl      1 

1&   " 

Reynolds,  pinx.  McA  retell. 

James,   Earl  of  Kildare  (Duke  of  Leinster). 


page  18 


%ifc  of  SLoro  Eowaro  3fit3(3evalo  19 

ment,  he  had  addressed  a  memorial  to  the  King 
touching  the  proceedings  of  that  "  greedy  Churchman, 
Archbishop  Stone."  The  remonstrance,  though  coldly- 
received,  was  effectual,  and  some  months  later  Stone's 
name  was  removed  from  the  list  of  Privy  Councillors. 

That  Lord  Kildare  did  not  suffer,  even  in  the 
estimation  of  those  in  power,  by  the  boldness  of 
his  protest  would  seem  to  be  proved  by  the  honours 
subsequently  conferred  upon  him  ;  while  at  home  his 
popularity  rose  to  such  a  height  that  it  is  recorded 
that  he  was  an  hour  making  his  way  through  the 
crowd  which  filled  the  streets  between  Parliament 
House  and  his  own,  and  a  medal  was  struck  to 
commemorate  the  presentation  of  his  memorial. 

The  great  popularity  enjoyed  by  Lord  Edward's 
father  was  probably  due  to  other  causes  besides  those 
of  a  political  nature.  He  resided  almost  altogether 
in  Ireland,  spending  his  money  either  in  Dublin — 
where  he  built  himself  Leinster  House  and  exercised 
a  princely  hospitality — or  on  his  estate  at  Carton  ; 
and  the  distinction  of  his  manners  was  such,  in  their 
noble  and  attractive  courtesy,  that  it  was  said  that  when 
in  the  presence  of  the  Viceroys  he  gave  the  impression 
of  being  more  Viceroy  than  they. 

In  the  year  1747,  two  years  previous  to  the  presenta- 
tion of  his  memorial  to  the  King,  he  had  married 
Lady  Emilia  Lennox,  second  daughter  of  the  Duke 
of  Richmond,  a  connection  which  exercised  no  little 
influence  upon  his  son's  subsequent  career,  bringing 
him,  as  it  naturally  did,  into  intimate  relationship  with 


20  %itc  of  Xoro  Eowaco  ffit3(Beralo 

the  great  Whig  families  of  England,  and  giving  him  a 
foothold  on  English  life,  both  social  and  political. 

Lady  Emilia  was  one  of  a  group  of  sisters  and  half- 
sisters,  two  ot  whom  at  least  became,  like  herself,  the 
mothers  of  notable  men  ;  and  among  Lord  Edward's 
first  cousins  were  included  Charles  James  Fox  and  the 
Napier  brothers,  heroes  of  the  Peninsular  War.  Lady 
Sarah  Lennox,  mother  of  these  last,  and  a  younger 
sister  of  Lady  Holland  and  the  Duchess  of  Leinster, 
had  been  celebrated,  in  days  when  beauty  was  more 
of  a  power  than  is  now  the  case,  for  her  loveliness — 
"more  beautiful  than  you  can  conceive,"  wrote  Horace 
Walpole  enthusiastically  ;  although  he  allowed  on 
another  occasion  that,  with  all  the  glow  of  beauty 
peculiar  to  the  family,  she  lacked  features.  It  was  this 
lady  who  had  enjoyed  the  singular  privilege  of  refusing 
the  hand  of  a  King — an  opportunity  of  which  she 
had  availed  herself  in  haste,  to  repent  at  leisure. 

It  would  seem  that  beauty  was  hereditary  in  the 
Lennox  family,  for  one  of  Lady  Sarah's  sons,  left  for 
dead  upon  the  battlefield,  was  described  by  an  officer 
by  whom  he  was  discovered  in  that  condition  as  more 
beautiful  than  any  man  he  had  ever  seen  or  dreamed 
of  ;  and  in  another  of  Horace  Walpole's  letters  we  are 
given  a  picture  of  a  group  at  a  ball,  made  up  of 
the  Duchess  of  Richmond  and  her  two  daughters, 
afterwards  Duchess  of  Leinster  and  Lady  Holland, 
herself  the  most  beautiful  of  a  beautiful  trio  ;  while 
the  Duke,  her  husband,  showed  his  appreciation  of  his 
good  fortune  by  remaining  all  night  at  his  wife's  side, 


lite  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffit36eralo  21 

kissing  her  hand — an  exhibition  of  domestic  affection 
which  must  have  been  highly  gratifying  to  the  public 
sense  of  morality. 

The  Lennoxes  were,  in  truth,  an  affectionate  race, 
the  ties  of  blood  possessing  in  their  case  peculiar 
strength,  and  surviving  to  an  uncommon  degree  the 
separating  forces  of  life  and  its  vicissitudes.  It  is 
necessary  to  bear  this  circumstance  in  mind  in  con- 
nection with  Lord  Edward's  future  life,  for  it  is  likely 
enough  that  to  this  cause,  and  to  the  fact  of  his 
possession  of  so  large  a  home  circle,  with  many 
friendships  made  ready  to  his  hand,  may  be  ascribed 
the  absence  of  any  indication  of  the  formation  of 
strong  or  intimate  outside  ties. 

Of  Lord  Edward's  childhood  the  details  which  have 
been  handed  down  are  few  and  meagre,  nor  are  those 
which  we  possess  of  any  special  interest.  Though  he 
was  born  in  London,  if  his  marriage  register  is  to 
be  trusted,  he  must  have  been  almost  wholly  brought 
up  in  Ireland  so  long  as  his  father  lived,  and  his 
earliest  education  was  received  at  the  hands  of  a 
tutor  named  Lynch. 

When  he  was  no  more  than  ten  years  old,  however, 
the  Duke  of  Leinster  died,  at  the  comparatively  early 
age  of  fifty-one  ;  and  in  the  following  year,  not  more 
than  ten  months  after  his  death,  an  event  occurred 
which  electrified  society  and  must  have  had  a  consider- 
able effect  upon  the  future  of  the  FitzGerald  family. 
This  was  the  marriage  of  the  new-made  widow,  the 
mother  of  nineteen  children,  and  already  arrived  at  the 


22  xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt3<Seralo 

mature  age  of  forty-two,  to  Mr.  William  Ogilvie,  her 
son's  Scotch  tutor. 

It  was  a  proceeding  which  might  well  take  the 
world  by  surprise,  even  when  it  was  borne  in  mind 
that  the  Lennoxes  had  always  testified  a  disposition 
to  take  the  arrangement  of  their  matrimonial  affairs 
into  their  own  hands.  The  Duchess's  elder  sister 
Caroline  had,  many  years  before,  entered  upon  a  clan- 
destine marriage  with  the  future  Lord  Holland,  when 
he  had  been  dismissed  as  ineligible  by  the  authorities 
at  home  ;  Lady  Sarah,  later  on,  had,  as  it  has  been 
observed,  been  disinterested  enough,  at  least  for  the 
moment,  to  refuse  a  king  ;  and  if  the  doubtful  story 
is  to  be  believed  which  makes  her  brother  the  Duke 
of  Richmond,  long  after  this  period,  and  when  he  too 
must  have  left  the  age  of  sentiment  far  behind,  a  suitor 
for  the  hand  of  his  nephew's  fair  little  widow,  it  would 
seem  that  it  was  not  to  the  feminine  portion  of  the 
family  alone   that  the  tendency  to  romance  belonged. 

The  first,  half  incredulous,  intimation  of  the  scandal 
is  contained  in  a  letter  of  Mrs.  Delany's  dated  Sep- 
tember, 1774.  "  The  account  of  the  Duchess  of 
Leinster's  marriage,"  she  says,  "  with  her  son's  tutor 
wants  confirmation." 

Later  in  the  same  month,  however,  the  news  had 
been  corroborated.  "The  Dss.  of  Leinster,"  she  says 
this  time,  "  is  certainly  married  to  her  son's  tutor." 

Later  on  still,  details  are  given  : 

"  I  mentioned  the  Duchess  of  Leinster's  marriage  to 
her  son's  tutor,  but  I  called  him  by  a  wrong  name — his 


Xife  of  Sloro  Eowaro  jfft3<3eralo  23 

name  is  Ogleby.  People  wonder  at  her  marriage,  as 
she  is  reckoned  one  of  the  proudest  and  most  expensive 
women  in  the  world,  but  perhaps  she  thought  it 
incumbent  (as  Lady  Brown  said  of  her  Grace)  to 
'marry  and  make  an  honest  man  of  him.'  I  pity  her 
poor  children,  and  it  is  supposed  that  this  wretched 
proceeding  has  made  Lady  Bellamont  [Lady  Emily 
FitzGerald,  the  Duchess's  daughter]  more  ready  to 
accept  of  that  miserable  match." 

Thus  Mrs.  Delany,  acting  as  spokeswoman  for 
the  world,  scandalised  by  the  madness  of  which  the 
Duchess  had  been  guilty.  The  letters  of  Lady  Sarah 
Lennox,  recently  published,  throw  a  light  upon  the 
spirit  in  which  the  marriage  was  accepted  by  those 
who  were  more  intimately  concerned  in  it,  as  well 
as  upon  the  fashion  in  which  the  affair  was  carried 
through  by  a  woman  "  whose  good  sense  is  enough 
known  to  make  her  conduct  of  some  consequence." 

It  appears  that  it  had  been  through  what  Lady  Sarah 
terms  the  impertinence  of  the  Duchess's  eldest  daughter, 
the  Lady  Bellamont  mentioned  by  Mrs.  Delany,  that 
matters  had  been  brought  to  a  crisis  ;  "when  her 
mother, . "  forced  to  take  un  parti  "  confessed,  with 
some  spirit,  to  those  whom  it  chiefly  concerned,  that 
it  was  very  possible  she  might  marry  Mr.  Ogilvie  ; 
writing,  further,  when  all  was  decided,  to  her  brother 
in  terms  which,  to  a  man  of  his  affectionate  disposition, 
were  well  calculated  to  disarm  displeasure  :  "  I  am 
content,"  she  said,  u  that  you  should  call  me  a  fool, 
and  an  old  fool,  that  you  should  blame  me  and  say  you 


24  Xife  of  Xoro  Bbwaro  3flt3<Beralo 

did  not  think  me  capable  of  such  a  folly  ;  talk  me 
over,  say  what  you  please,  but  remember  that  all  I  ask 
of  you  is  your  affection  and  tenderness."  1 

That  she  did  not  make  her  demand  in  vain,  either  in 
the  case  of  the  Duke  or  of  others  of  her  family,  is  plain 
from  the  sequel. 

Of  the  man  for  whose  sake  she  considered  the  world 
well  lost  comparatively  little  is  known.  He  was  of 
good  Scotch  blood,  had  been  returned  to  the  Irish 
Parliament  by  Mr.  Conolly,  brother-in-law  to  the 
Duchess,  and  bore  the  character  of  being  an  effective 
speaker,  with  a  clear,  articulate  voice  and  a  strong 
Scotch  accent.  With  his  accent  he  appears  likewise 
to  have  brought  from  Scotland  the  shrewd  common 
sense  and  substantial  qualities  supposed  to  belong  to 
his  nationality.  It  is  certain,  at  all  events,  that  neither 
the  Duchess  nor  her  "  poor  children  "  had  reason  to 
repent  her  imprudence  ;  while  the  account  given  of 
him,  some  five  years  later,  by  Lady  Sarah  Lennox, 
although  not  over-flattering,  may  serve  in  some  measure 
as  an  explanation  of  the  marriage. 

"  I  have  seen  him,"  she  writes,  on  the  return  of 
the  couple  from  abroad,  "  and  think  him  a  very  good 
sort  of  man,  most  sincerely  attached  to  her,  which  is 
all  my  business  in  the  affair  ;  but  she  certainly  did  not 
marry  him  pour  V amour  de  ses  beaux  yeuxy  for  he  is 
very  ugly  and  has  a  disagreeable  manner,  but  as 
she  says,  very  truly  I  believe,  he  had  known  her  so 
many  years  he  could  not  possibly  not  know  his  mind, 
1  Life  and  Letters  of  Lady  Sarah  Lennox,  Vol.  I.,  p.  240. 


Reynolds,  pinx.  McAvddl. 

Emily  Countess  of  Kildare  (Duchess  of  Leinster). 


page  24. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit36eralo  25 

and  his  mind  was  to  love  her  to  adoration,  and  that's 
very  captivating."  * 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  remarkable  tolerance  dis- 
played by  the  Lennox  family,  and  in  spite  also  of  all 
that  could  be  advanced  in  its  favour,  the  marriage 
cannot  have  failed  to  be  regarded  by  them  in  the  light 
of  a  disaster  ;  and  though  there  is  no  trace  of  any 
consequent  estrangement  between  the  Duchess  and  her 
relations,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  a  few  years'  absence 
from  England — a  species  of  honourable  banishment — 
may  have  been  judged  expedient  before  she  should 
return  to  fill  once  more  her  place   in  society. 

Whether  it  was  for  that  reason  or  not,  the  Fitz- 
Geralds,  shortly  after  the  Duchess's  marriage,  quitted 
Ireland  and  took  up  their  residence  in  France,  occupy- 
ing a  house  possessed  by  the  Duke  of  Richmond  at 
Aubigny  as  Duke  of  that  name,  and  placed  by  him 
at  the  service  of  his  sister  and  her  family. 

It  was  here  that  the  remainder  of  Lord  Edward's 
boyhood  was  passed,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  warmth 
of  his  sentiments  in  after-years  with  regard  to  France — 
a  bias  not  without  its  effect  upon  his  career — may  be 
due  in  part  at  least  to  the  years  spent  by  him  on  the 
banks  of  the  Garonne.  "  You  and  I,"  he  wrote  to 
his  mother  from  Paris  when  claiming  her  sympathy 
on  behalf  of  the  Revolution — "  you  and  I  always  had 
a  proper  liking  for  the  true  French  character." 

Whether  or  not  it  was  an  altogether  wise  measure 
to  educate  abroad  a  boy  intended  to  take  his  place 
1  Ibid.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  297. 


26  xtfe  ot  Xorfc  Efcwavfc  3fit3<3eralt> 

in  an  English  profession  may  be  open  to  question  ; 
but  besides  the  reasons  connected  with  the  Duchess's 
marriage,  economical  arguments  may  also  have  been 
taken  into  consideration  in  determining  her  temporary 
retirement  ;  for  with  so  large  a  family  of  young 
FitzGeralds — no  less  than  nine  sons  and  ten  daughters 
had  been  born  to  the  Duke,  of  whom  many  would 
still  be  on  their  mother's  hands — to  say  nothing  of 
two  little  Ogilvies  shortly  added  to  the  tale,  there  was 
probably  no  superabundance  of  money  available,  even 
for  purposes  of  education  ;  and  Mr.  Ogilvie,  setting 
his  shoulder  to  the  wheel,  and  qualified,  no  doubt, 
by  former  experience  for  the  task,  seems  to  have  kept 
Lord  Edward's  tuition  entirely  in  his  own  hands. 

It  speaks  well  for  the  pacific  dispositions  of  both 
teacher  and  pupil  that  the  hazardous  experiment  was 
attended  with  marked  success.  Lord  Edward's 
affection  for  his  mother's  husband  was  only  indeed 
second  to  that  passionate  devotion  to  herself  which, 
lasting  through  every  phase  of  his  after-life,  presents 
one  of  his  most  attractive  features  ;  and  writing  to 
Mr.  Ogilvie  when  the  period  of  close  association  was 
at  an  end,  and  when,  emancipated  from  parental 
control,  he  had  joined  his  regiment  and  entered  upon 
his  military  career,  the  boy  made  due  acknowledgment 
of  his  obligations  with  sincerity  none  the  less  evident 
because  couched  in  the  formal  language  of  the  day. 

"  Whatever  [my  sentiments]  are,"  he  wrote,  after 
expressing  his  satisfaction  at  finding  himself  in  accord 
with    his   step-father    on    the    subject    of    their   corre- 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit36eralo  27 

spondence — "  whatever  my  sentiments  are,  as  well  as 
anything  I  have  ever  acquired,  are  mostly  owing  to 
your  affection  for  me,  both  in  forming  my  principles 
and  helping  my  understanding  ;  for  which  the  only 
return  I  can  make  is  my  love  for  you,  and  that,  I 
am  sure,  you  are  perfectly  convinced  of."  Nor  is 
there  at  any  subsequent  date  the  smallest  trace  that 
divergent  opinions  or  other  causes  ever  produced  a 
diminution  of  the  unusual  cordiality  of  a  difficult 
relationship. 

Granted  the  inevitable  isolation  from  all  but  family 
association  of  a  boyhood  passed  in  a  French  country 
neighbourhood,  there  was  probably  little  wanting  to 
make  Lord  Edward's  a  happy  one.  Brothers  and 
sisters,  older  and  younger,  must  have  filled  the  house 
and  found  an  ideal  playground  in  the  old  Castle  of 
Aubigny  which  stood  near,  if  not  adjoining,  the  more 
modern  residence  ;  and  the  companionship  of  his  mother 
would  have  gone  far  to  make  up  for  the  absence  ot 
the  variety  afforded  by  school  life. 

The  system  of  home  education,  notwithstanding 
all  that  may  be  argued  to  its  disadvantage,  is  not 
without  its  compensations,  especially  in  the  case  of 
a  nature  standing  in  as  little  need  as  that  of  Lord 
Edward  of  the  rougher  discipline  a  school  supplies  ; 
and  to  those  early  years  passed  under  his  mother's 
roof  may  be  ascribed  much  of  the  abiding  influence 
she  exercised  over  him  throughout  his  after-life,  in- 
sufficient as  it  proved  to  avert  the  final  catastrophe, 
as  well  as  the  clinging  affection  and  singular  confidence 


2  8  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jf  it3<5enilo 

which  marked  his  relations  with  her  to  the  end.  He 
bore  through  life  the  stamp  of  a  man  who  has  loved 
his  home. 

Mr.  Ogilvie  appears  to  have  been  a  practical  man. 
His  stepson  had  been  destined  from  the  first  for  the 
army,  and  his  education  was  conducted  throughout 
with  a  view  to  his  future  profession,  to  which  he 
seems  to  have  looked  forward  with  eager  anticipation. 
Even  his  amusements  were  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  art  of  war,  and  there  is  a  letter  extant  to  his 
mother  in  which  he  gives  a  description  of  the  mimic 
fortifications  with  which,  during  her  temporary  absence 
from  home,  he  had  embellished  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond's orangery,  together  with  an  account  of  a 
"  very  pretty  survey  "  which  he  had  taken  of  the 
fields  round  the  Garonne.  The  letter  concludes 
with  a  half-apology  for  the  boasting  of  which 
the  writer  had  been  guilty  ;  "  but  you  know,"  adds 
the  boy  cheerfully,  "I  have  always  rather  a  good 
opinion  of  what  I  do." 

In  the  last  century,  however,  less  time  was  wasted 
than  is  the  case  now  over  the  preliminaries  of  life, 
and  prefaces  were  apt  to  be  cut  short.  At  sixteen 
young  FitzGerald  had  concluded  his  education,  except 
in  so  far  as  those  studies  were  concerned  which  might 
be  combined  with  the  possession  of  a  commission  in 
the  army,  and  he  was  already  in  England,  attached 
in  the  first  place  to  a  militia  regiment  of  which  his 
uncle,  the  Duke,  was  Colonel,  and  was  turning  to 
practical   use  the    experience   gained  in    the    orangery 


%iic  of  Storo  Eowaro  jfft3(Seralo  29 

fortifications  and  the  Garonne  survey.  It  would  seem 
that  under  these  new  circumstances  he  succeeded  in 
acquitting  himself  of  his  duties  no  less  to  his  own 
satisfaction  than  formerly,  as  well  as  to  that  of  his 
superior  officer  ;  and  judging  from  a  letter  to  his 
mother,  in  which  he  gives  a  report  of  the  proceedings 
of  her  "  dear,  sweet  boy,"  it  is  to  be  inferred  that 
the  rude  disciplinarian,  Time,  had  not  yet  cured  him 
of  the  habit  of  taking  a  favourable  view  of  his  own 
performances. 

Keen,  however,  as  was  his  enjoyment  of  his  initiation 
into  military  duties,  he  was  none  the  less  eager  to 
be  done  with  what  he  no  doubt  regarded  in  the  light 
of  a  mere  rehearsal  of  the  real  business  of  life,  and  to 
cut  short  his  apprenticeship  ;  nor  is  it  to  be  wondered 
at  that,  at  a  time  when  actual  experience  of  warfare 
was  to  be  gained  at  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
he  should  not  have  been  disposed  to  linger  over  the 
stage  represented  by  service  in  a  militia  regiment  at 
home.  Impatient  to  begin  soldiering  in  earnest,  he 
had  scarcely  been  appointed,  on  the  completion  of  his 
seventeenth  year,  to  a  lieutenancy  in  the  26th  Regiment, 
before  he  is  found  fretting  at  a  life  of  enforced 
inaction  and  moving  heaven  and  earth  to  get  himself 
dispatched  abroad  on  active  service. 

Some  necessary  delay,  however,  took  place  before 
his  wishes  could  be  accomplished  ;  and  in  the  meantime 
he  was  not  backward  in  availing  himself  of  such 
means  of  entertainment  as  were  to  be  found  within 
reach  of  his  Irish  quarters.     As  usual,  he  had  nothing 


30  Xife  of  Xort)  Bowavo  tfitsGeralo 

but  good  to  report,  both  of  his  superior  officer  and 
of  the  place  in  which  he  found  himself.  Everybody 
had  shown  him  great  civility,  and  he  had  in  especial 
managed  to  get  particular  enjoyment  out  of  a  visit 
to  Lord  Shannon's,  where  he  had  met  his  relation 
Lady  Inchiquin,  arrayed,  so  he  asserted,  in  the  self- 
same marron-coloured  gown  she  had  been  wearing 
when  the  FitzGerald  departure  from  Ireland  had  taken 
place,  though  now  altered  in  cut  and  made  up  into 
a  jacket  and  petticoat.  It  would  seem  that  Lord 
Edward's  memory  for  clothes  was  good  ! 

There  had  been  another  guest,  besides  poor  Lady 
Inchiquin,  at  Lord  Shannon's.  For  a  considerable 
portion  of  Lord  Edward's  life  it  would  not  be  unsafe 
to  say  that  when  he  was  not  soldiering  he  was  sure 
to  be  making  love,  and  on  this  occasion  he  had  made 
the  acquaintance  of  a  charming  girl,  the  first  of  many, 
with  whom,  he  assured  the  Duchess,  he  would,  had 
he  only  had  time,  have  fallen  desperately  in  love  ; 
owning  himself,  even  in  the  absence  of  the  necessary- 
leisure,  a  little  touched.  In  this  case,  too,  no  less 
than  in  respect  to  his  military  prowess,  some  trace  of 
self-satisfaction  is  to  be  detected.  As  to  what  account 
of  him  Lady  Inchiquin  might  give  he  confesses  himself 
doubtful — one  fancies  his  conscience  accuses  him  of 
some  ill-concealed  ridicule  of  the  antique  marron- 
coloured  gown  ;  but  of  Miss  Sandford's  good  word — 
so  much  more  important — he  feels  himself  secure. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  these  distractions,  and  others,  he 
was  impatient  to  be  gone,  and,  though  in  a  less  degree, 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fft3<5eralo  31 

anxious  upon  the  subject  of  promotion.  He  was 
already  keenly  interested  in  the  details  of  his  profession, 
and,  young  though  he  was,  he  took  a  serious  view 
of  his  duties.  Happy  and  hopeful  as  usual — "  le  plus 
gaV  in  his  regiment,  as  he  tells  his  mother,  falling 
naturally  into  French  after  his  long  residence  abroad — 
he  had  set  himself  to  become  a  good  soldier,  and 
expected  to  succeed. 

"  I  am  very  busy,"  he  wrote,  "  and  have  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  my  company,  which,  as  the  captain 
does  not  mind  it  much,  is  not  a  very  good  one,  and 
I  have  taken  it  into  my  head  that  I  can  make  it 
better.  You  will  think  me  very  conceited,  but  I 
depend  greatly  upon  Captain  Giles's  instructions.  .  .  . 
I  think  by  the  time  I  have  served  a  campaign  or  two 
with  him  I  shall  be  a  pretty  good  officer." 

In  the  meantime  he  would  have  liked  to  have  got 
a  company  of  his  own.  He  had  already  held  for 
more  than  a  month  the  position  of  lieutenant  in  his 
Majesty's  army,  was  turned  seventeen,  and  yet,  so 
far  as  could  be  seen,  there  was  no  immediate  prospect 
of  his  obtaining  the  promotion  to  which  his  brother, 
upon  his  behalf,  ought  to  have  had  every  right. 
Dilatory,  however,  as  he  considered  the  authorities 
in  this  respect,  he  was  not  so  unwilling  as  he  might 
otherwise  have  been  to  condone  their  neglect,  owing 
to  the  apprehension  lest  promotion  should  interfere 
with  his  chance — a  far  more  serious  matter — of  being 
speedily  dispatched  to  the  seat  of  war.  One  con- 
sideration, and  one  only,  damped  the  exhilaration  with 


32  Xife  of  2/Oro  Eowaro  3fit3<Beralo 

which  he  looked  forward  to  the  prospect  of  active 
service — the  inevitable  separation  from  his  mother. 
Love  for  her  was  the  only  force  that  even  for  a 
moment  came  into  competition  with  his  spirit  of 
adventure,  and  the  two  conflicting  sentiments  find 
expression  in  his  letters. 

"  How  happy  I  should  be  to  see  her  !  "  he  wrote, 
"  yet  how  happy  I  shall  be  to  sail  !  "  And  again, 
"  Dear,  dear  mother,"  he  wrote  from  Youghall  in 
answer  to  a  letter  the  tenor  of  which  it  is  easy  to 
conjecture,  since  to  the  Duchess  the  impending  separa- 
tion can  have  had  no  compensations,  "  I  cannot 
express  how  much  your  letter  affected  me.  The  only 
thing  that  could  put  me  into  spirits  was  the  report 
that  the  transports  were  come  into  Cove." 

It  was  inevitable,  however,  that  at  seventeen  and 
with  a  nature  such  as  that  of  Lord  Edward,  the  love 
of  adventure  should  win  the  day.  Even  the  delight 
of  seeing  his  mother,  he  declared,  would  be  enhanced 
by  being  preceded  by  an  American  campaign  ;  and 
early  in  the  year  178 1  he  exchanged  into  the  19th 
Regiment,  then  expecting  shortly  to  be  ordered  abroad. 
Leaving  England  in  March,  he  landed  in  the  month 
of  June  at  Charleston,  to  take  his  share,  in  strange 
contradiction  to  the  latter  part  of  his  career,  in  the 
war  which  England  was  carrying  on  against  the 
independence  of  her  American  colonies. 


CHAPTER    III 

1781—1783 

The  American  War — Opinions  concerning  it — Lord  Edward 
at  Charleston — Active  Service — Dangerous  Escapade — 
Wounded  at  Eutaw  Springs — Tony — Early  Popularity — 
St.  Lucia — Back  in  Ireland. 

THE  end  of  the  last  century  was  a  time  when 
opinion  moved  rapidly.  In  the  year  1798  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  in  proposing  Mr.  Fox's  health  at 
a  great  dinner  of  the  Whig  Club,  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  his  name  that  of  another  great  man, 
Washington.  "That  man,"  he  said,  "established 
the  liberties  of  his  countrymen.  I  leave  it  to  you, 
gentlemen,  to  make  the  application." 

It  is  true  that,  in  consequence  of  this  speech,  together 
with  a  toast  which  followed  it,  variously  reported  as 
"  Our  Sovereign — the  People,"  or  "  The  People — our 
Sovereign,"  the  Duke  was  dismissed  from  the  Lord 
Lieutenancy  of  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire  ;  but 
that  such  a  speech  should  have  been  received  with 
applause  at  an  immense  representative  meeting  is  none 
the  less  a  significant  sign  of  the  times. 

In  the  very  month  that  the  Duke's  speech  was 
made,   the   cousin  of  Fox,  Lord  Edward   FitzGerald, 

33  3 


34  Xtfe  of  Xoro  Bowavo  tfitsGeralb 

lay  dying  of  the  wounds  he  had  received  in  the  cause 
of  what  he  loyally  believed  to  be  the  "liberties  of  his 
countrymen."  Seventeen  years  earlier  he  had  been 
wounded  in  another  struggle,  when  fighting  under  the 
British  flag  in  vindication  of  the  rights  of  England 
over  her  colonies.  At  that  later  hour  the  com- 
parison of  the  two  objects  for  which  his  blood  had 
been  shed  would  seem  to  have  been  present  with  him  ; 
and  when  a  visitor,  some  military  official  of  the  Govern- 
ment with  whom  he  had  been  acquainted  in  Charleston, 
reminded  him  of  those  old  days,  he  replied — was  it 
with  a  sense  of  a  debt  wiped  out  ? — that  it  had  been 
in  a  different  cause  that  he  had  been  wounded  then  ; 
since  at  that  time  he  had  been  fighting  against  liberty, 
now  for  it. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  after-life — 
and  his  was  not  a  nature  to  be  troubled  by  morbid 
remorse  for  a  wrong  ignorantly  done — it  is  certain 
that  no  scruples  as  to  the  justice  of  the  quarrel  in 
which  he  was  to  be  engaged  were  likely  to  disturb  the 
conscience  of  the  eighteen-year-old  boy,  or  to  interfere 
with  his  satisfaction  in  finding  himself  at  last  at  the 
seat  of  war. 

It  was  true  that  his  cousin  Charles  James  Fox  was 
not  only,  with  the  rest  of  his  party,  bitterly  opposed 
to  the  struggle,  but  that,  with  the  irresponsibility 
of  a  statesman  who  considered  himself  at  the  time 
virtually  and  indefinitely  excluded  from  all  participation 
in  practical  politics,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  using 
language  which  has  been  described  as  that  of  a  passion- 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowavo  fftt3<SeralD  35 

ate  partisan  of  the  insurgents.  "  If  America  should 
be  at  our  feet,"  he  wrote  after  some  British  victory, 
a  which  God  forbid  !  "  His  uncle  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  too,  had  expressed  his  opinion — thus  indi- 
cating his  view  of  the  men  by  whom  the  war  was 
carried  on — that  Parliament  in  its  present  temper  would 
be  prepared  to  establish  a  despotism  in  England  itself ; 
and  neither  in  society  nor  in  the  House  did  the  Whig 
party  make  any  secret  of  the  goodwill  they  bore  to 
the  cause  of  the  revolted  colonies,  some  of  the  more 
extreme  among  them  going  so  far  as  to  make  the 
reverses  suffered  by  the  British  forces  matter  of  open 
rejoicing. 

But  to  hold  a  theoretical  opinion  is  one  thing, 
to  allow  it  to  influence  practical  action  quite  another, 
and  it  is  to  be  questioned  whether  the  views  enter- 
tained by  his  party  and  accepted  by  himself  as  to 
the  injustice  of  the  war  would  have  had  a  more 
deterrent  effect  upon  the  average  country  gentleman 
in  the  choice  of  the  army  as  a  profession  for  one 
son  than  would  have  been  exercised  by  the  prevailing 
scepticism  of  the  eighteenth  century  upon  his  intention 
of  educating  the  other  with  a  view  to  the  family 
living.  The  one  was  a  matter  of  theory,  the  other 
of  practice,  and  it  is  astonishing  to  what  an  extent 
it  is  possible  to  keep  the  two  in  all  honesty 
apart. 

Lord  Edward's  temperament,  too,  was  essentially 
that  of  a  soldier  ;  to  obey  without  question  or 
hesitation  was  a  soldier's  duty  ;   and    especially   when 


36  %ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffit3(3eralo 

the  duty  enjoined  upon  him  lay  in  the  direction 
of  active  service  he  was  not  likely  to  examine  over- 
curiously  into  the  abstract  right  and  wrong  of  the 
principle  upon  which  the  war  was  based.  On  the 
contrary,  when  the  differences  of  opinion  prevailing 
in  England  on  the  subject  were  forced  upon  his 
attention,  as,  through  his  connection  with  the  party 
in  opposition,  must  often  have  been  the  case,  he 
would  dismiss  them  from  his  mind  as  wholly  irrelevant 
to  the  more  important  question  of  personal  duty  ; 
reflecting,  if  he  gave  any  thought  at  all  to  the 
matter,  that  whatever  might  have  been  the  original 
rights  of  the  quarrel,  it  was  clearly  the  business  of 
every  soldier,  since  England  had  engaged  in  the 
conflict,  to  do  his  best  that  she  should  come  out  of 
it  victorious. 

That  she  was  not  likely  to  do  so  was,  by  this 
time,  except  to  the  eyes  of  a  boy  of  eighteen,  plain. 
The  eventual  issue  of  the  struggle  was  practically 
decided.  Ever  since  the  beginning  of  1 78 1  reverses 
had  persistently  followed  the  British  arms  ;  while,  with 
the  assistance  of  France,  success  was  declaring  itself 
more  and  more  emphatically  on  the  side  of  America. 
By  October  of  the  same  year  the  war  was  terminated 
by  the  surrender  of  the  British  forces  under  the 
command  of  Lord  Cornwallis,  and  the  colonies  were 
free. 

At  the  time  when  Lord  Edward  landed  with  his 
regiment,  four  months  earlier,  no  apprehension  of 
so  speedy  a  conclusion   to  hostilities  was    entertained. 


Xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowavo  3Ftt3<3eralo  37 

Lord  Rawdon,  however,  in  command  at  Charleston, 
was  so  hard  pressed  that  the  officer  in  charge  of  the 
newly  arrived  regiments,  instead  of  taking  them 
to  join  the  forces  under  Cornwallis,  as  had  been 
originally  intended,  placed  them  at  once  at  his  dis- 
posal, with  the  result  of  some  temporary  successes 
to  the  British  arms. 

To  Lord  Edward  personally  the  change  of  plan 
was  attended  with  favourable  consequences.  Having 
distinguished  himself  before  long  by  the  display  of 
unusual  readiness  and  skill  in  covering  a  retreat  on 
the  part  of  his  regiment,  the  performance  made  so 
advantageous  an  impression  at  headquarters  that 
young  FitzGerald  was  in  consequence — other  and 
more  irrelevant  circumstances  being  possibly  taken 
into  account — placed  as  aide-de-camp  on  Lord 
Rawdon's  staff,  a  position  which  afforded  him  the 
opportunity  of  serving  his  apprenticeship  to  active 
service  under  the  eye  of  a  general  well  adapted  to 
instruct  him  in  the  craft. 

The  fact  that  details  of  a  personal  nature  are,  at 
this  period  of  his  life,  peculiarly  scarce  may  account 
for  the  exaggerated  importance  which  has  been 
attached  to  a  boyish  escapade  of  which,  brilliant 
and  reckless  though  it  may  have  been,  many  other 
lads  with  an  equally  adventurous  spirit  would  have 
been  capable.  It  is  true  that  an  interest  not  other- 
wise belonging  to  it  may  be  lent  to  the  incident  by 
the  later  history  of  the  hero  ;  for  the  exploit  was 
distinguished    by    precisely    that    rash    and    heedless 


3$  %\fc  ot  ftort  JEtowub  3fit5<3eralfc 

gallantrv  which  continued  to  mark  his  conduct  when 
it  had  become  no  longer  a  question  of  his  personal 
safety  alone,  but  of  the  success  or  failure  of  the 
enterprise  of  which   he   was   the   chosen  leader. 

It  was  when  the  English  troops  were  engaged  in 
effecting  the  relief  of  a  fort  invested  by  the  American 
forces  that  the  occurrence  took  place.  A  reconnaissance 
had  been  arranged  ;  and  the  Adjutant-General  of  Lord 
Rawdon's  staff,  before  setting  out  on  it,  sent  to  desire 
Lord  Rawdon's  aide-de-camp  to  accompany  the  ex- 
pedition. The  aide-de-camp ,  however,  was  nowhere  to 
be  found  ;  and  after  a  fruitless  search  the  party  was 
proceeding  on  its  way  without  him,  when,  at  a  distance 
of  two  miles  from  the  camp,  the  culprit  was  discovered, 
having  been  executing  a  strictly  private  reconnaissance 
of  his  own,  and  engaged,  at  the  moment  of  the 
arrival  upon  the  scene  of  the  English  patrolling  party, 
in  a  hand-to-hand  fight  with  two  of  the  enemy's 
irregular  horse.  His  insubordination  had  come  near 
to  putting  a  premature  end  to  his  experience  of  war- 
fare. Saved,  however,  bv  the  timely  intervention  of 
his  comrades  from  the  consequences  of  his  foolhardi- 
ness,  he  submitted,  with  much  show  of  penitence,  to 
the  severe  reprimand  administered  by  his  commanding 
officer  for  the  misdemeanour  of  which  he  had  been 
guilty  in  absenting  himself  from  the  camp  without 
permission  ;  and  so  conducted  himself  that,  in  spite 
of  his  delinquency,  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  leave  to 
accompany  the  present  expedition.  "  It  was  impossible 
to  refuse  the  fellow,"  confessed  the  Adjutant- General, 


Xlfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfitsGeralo  39 

in  telling  the  story,  "  whose  frank,  manly,  and 
ingenuous  manner  would  have  won  over  even  a  greater 
tyrant  than  myself." 

There  were  in  after-days,  one  imagines,  not  a  few 
persons  who  found  it  difficult  to  refuse  to  Lord  Edward 
that  which  he  desired  to  obtain  ! 

On  Lord  Rawdon's  return  to  England,  his  young 
aide-de-camp  rejoined  his  regiment,  and,  fighting  in 
the  battle  of  Eutaw  Springs,  received  the  wound  to 
which  he  alluded  in  his  Newgate  cell.  It  was  also  on 
the  same  battlefield  that  he  gained  a  lifelong  friend. 
Found  lying  there  insensible  by  a  negro,  he  was  carried 
by  the  man  to  his  own  hut  and  was  by  him  nursed 
back  to  life.  The  two  were  never  afterwards  parted, 
and  throughout  Lord  Edward's  whole  subsequent 
history  runs  the  thread  of  the  doglike  and  devoted 
fidelity  of  "  Tony  "  to  his  master. 

There  is  indeed  apparent  at  this  period,  as  at  every 
other,  the  special  gift  he  possessed  in  so  singular  a 
degree — that,  namely,  of  winning  affection  from  all  those 
with  whom  he  was  brought  into  contact.  It  was  not 
only  black  Tony  who  felt  his  charm  ;  and  a  remarkable 
testimony  to  the  position  he  held  amongst  his  comrades 
is  furnished  by  Sir  John  Doyle,  the  same  officer  who 
had  been  unable  to  find  it  in  his  heart  to  punish  the 
boy  for  his  breach  of  discipline  by  refusing  him  per- 
mission to  accompany  the  reconnoitring  party.  Sir 
John,  as  Adjutant-General  on  Lord  Rawdon's  staff", 
had  had  special  opportunities  of  forming  an  opinion  of 
the  General's  aide-de-camp,  and  the  evidence  he  bears 


40  Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  jfft3<Bevalo 

to  his  extraordinary  popularity  as  well  as  to  his  gallantry 
is  worth  quoting. 

"  I  never  knew  so  lovable  a  person,"  he  wrote, 
"  and  every  man  in  the  army,  from  the  general  to 
the  drummer,  would  cheer  the  expression.  His 
frank  and  open  manner,  his  universal  benevolence,  his 
gaite  de  cceur,  his  valour  almost  chivalrous,  and,  above 
all,  his  unassuming  tone,  made  him  the  idol  of  all 
who  served  with  him.  He  had  great  animal  spirits, 
which  bore  him  up  against  all  fatigue  ;  but  his  courage 
was  entirely  independent  of  those  spirits — it  was  a 
valour  sui  generis." 

The  popularity  thus  described,  while  due  no  doubt 
in  some  measure  to  those  winning  qualities  which 
are  independent  of  training,  may  nevertheless  be  cited 
as  additional  proof  that  the  system  of  home  educa- 
tion which  had  been  pursued  in  his  case,  and  which 
had  fostered  the  clinging  affections  and  the  gentleness 
which  lasted  through  life,  had  been  productive  of 
none  of  the  ill  effects  which  sometimes  make  themselves 
apparent  when  a  lad  who  has  been  thus  brought  up 
is  thrown  upon  the  world  and  forced  to  find  his  own 
level.  The  total  absence  of  arrogance  or  self-asser- 
tiveness,  upon  which  Doyle  lays  special  stress,  was  at 
all  times  one  of  his  marked  features,  and  no  doubt 
had  its  share  in  contributing  to  that  influence  over 
men  of  all  classes  which  is  essential  to  the  leader  of 
a  party. 

Lord  Edward's  experience  of  actual  warfare,  though 
exciting   so  long   as   it  lasted,  was  not  destined  to  be 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowavo  tfit3<3evalo  41 

prolonged.  In  the  autumn  came  the  surrender  of 
the  British  forces  at  Yorktown ;  and  he  was  sent 
some  little  time  later — it  does  not  appear  at  what 
exact  date — to  occupy  a  post  upon  the  staff  of  General 
O'Hara  at  St.  Lucia. 

The  work  to  be  done  on  the  West  Indian  island 
was  chiefly  that  of  erecting  fortifications  ;  and  was 
probably  found  by  the  young  soldier  somewhat  tame 
in  comparison  with  the  excitement  of  the  American 
campaign.  As  usual,  however,  he  cordially  liked  his 
new  chief,  who  put  him  a  little  in  mind  of  "  dear 
Mr.  Ogilvie,"  and  who  must  have  been  possessed  of 
attractions  of  his  own  ;  since,  some  thirteen  years 
later,  he  broke  the  heart  of  Miss  Berry,  the  friend 
of  Horace  Walpole,  whose  engagement  to  O'Hara 
is  said  to  have  constituted  the  one  romance  of  her 
life.  So  constant,  indeed,  did  she  remain  to  her 
faithless  lover,  in  spite  of  his  repudiation,  without 
explanation  or  excuse,  of  the  relations  between  them, 
that,  years  afterwards,  on  receiving  the  sudden  news 
of  his  death  she  fell  down  in  a  dead  faint. 

It  was  not  only  in  the  eyes  of  the  woman  who  loved 
him  and  who  described  him  as  the  most  perfect 
specimen  of  a  soldier  and  a  courtier  that  O'Hara 
possessed  singular  merits.  Lord  Cornwallis  also  re- 
corded his  high  opinion  of  the  services  he  had  rendered, 
and  of  his  success  in  reconciling  the  Guards  to  the 
endurance  of  every  species  of  hardship.  He  is 
therefore  likely  to  have  proved  a  chief  after  Lord 
Edward's  own  heart,  both  from  a  social  and  military 


42  Xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<3eralo 

point  of  view  ;  and,  granted  the  inevitable  drawback 
of  withdrawal  from  active  service,  everything  at  St. 
Lucia  was  much  to  the  newcomer's  liking,  with  the 
exception  of  "  three  blockheads  who  were  pleased  to 
call  themselves  engineers,"  and  who  supplied  his  one 
cause  of  legitimate  discontent. 

The  mastery  he  possessed  over  the  French  language 
was  the  means  of  providing  him  with  a  greater  amount 
of  variety  than  fell  to  the  lot  of  his  brother-officers  ; 
for  he  was  sent,  in  consequence  of  it,  in  charge  of 
prisoners  and  under  a  flag  of  truce,  to  the  French 
quarters  at  Martinique,  where  he  passed  a  very 
pleasant  time,  being  as  well  received,  or  if  possible 
better,  than  had  that  peace  been  concluded  which 
was  already  a  grave  cause  of  anxiety  and  "  frightened 
everybody." 

By  reason,  doubtless,  of  its  nationality,  Martinique 
appears  to  have  been  a  gayer  resort  than  St.  Lucia. 
The  young  envoy  was  at  balls  every  night  during  his 
mission  to  the  island,  and  found  the  women  pretty 
and  well  dressed,  besides  being — he  is  careful  to  make 
the  assertion  on  the  authority  of  the  French  officers, 
but  one  may  be  justified  in  believing  that  their  report 
had  been  corroborated  by  personal  experience — "  to  use 
dear  Robert's  1  words,  '  vastly  good-natured.'  " 

Lord  Edward  himself,  like  his  brother,  had  probably 

little  cause    to  complain  of  lack    of   good    nature   on 

the    part    of  women ;    nor    had   he  as    yet    made    the 

discovery    that     their    kindness,     in     the     case     of    a 

1  Lord  Robert  FitzGerald,  his  brother,  younger  by  two  years. 


%ifc  of  %ovb  Eowaro  jfit36eralo  43 

younger  son  possessed  of  restricted  means,  is  liable 
to  limitation. 

In  the  comparative  seclusion  of  St.  Lucia,  and  with 
leisure  to  turn  his  mind  to  such  matters,  his  thoughts 
again  reverted  to  the  subject  of  promotion.  His  views 
on  the  question  had  enlarged  since  he  had  last  occupied 
himself  with  it  in  Ireland,  and  a  company  in  the  Guards 
was  now  the  object  of  his  ambition.  A  lieutenancy 
he  would  not  so  much  as  accept  as  a  gift.  He  could 
not  but  consider  it  somewhat  strange,  to  say  the  least 
of  it,  that,  having  been  now  nearly  four  years  in  the 
service — though  he  based  no  claim  upon  this  circum- 
stance— he  had  received  no  company  ;  and  being 
by  this  time  on  the  way  to  complete  his  twentieth 
year,  he  naturally  felt  aggrieved  at  the  neglect  with 
which  he  had  been  treated.  One  detects  the  exist- 
ence of  a  covert  threat  in  the  scheme  unfolded  to 
his  mother  of  a  plan  for  seeking  in  the  East  Indies, 
likely  before  long  to  become  a  stirring  scene  of 
action,  the  advancement  in  his  profession  which 
was  so  unaccountably  withheld  from  him  in  other 
quarters. 

It  is  clear  that  he  considered  that  his  relations  had 
been  remiss  in  pressing  his  claims  upon  the  authorities 
at  home.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  had  declined  to 
interfere — a  determination  in  which  his  nephew,  viewing 
the  matter  dispassionately,  could  not  but  consider  him 
mistaken  ;  and  her  spoilt  boy  even  seems  to  suspect 
the  Duchess  herself  of  supineness  in  the  matter.  His 
letters  are  nevertheless  as  full  of  affection  as  ever. 


44  Xite  of  Xovo  Eowaro  fftt3(3eralo 

"  What  would  I  not  give  to  be  with  you,"  he  writes, 
only  a  month  after  that  astute  hint  had  been  thrown 
out  as  to  a  lieutenant-colonelcy  to  be  had  in  the  East 
for  the  asking — "  what  would  I  not  give  to  be  with 
you,  to  comfort  you,  dearest  mother  !  But  I  hope  the 
peace  will  soon  bring  the  long-wished-for  time  " — the 
peace,  observe,  the  prospect  of  which  "  frightened 
everybody."  "  Till  then  my  dearest  mother  will  not 
expect  it." 

There  is  a  curious  touch  of  prudence — the  prudence 
which  recognises  and  gauges  its  own  limits — in  the 
allusion  made  to  some  wish  apparently  expressed  by  the 
Duke  his  brother  that  he  should  return  to  England  on 
the  attainment  of  his  twenty-first  year  and  set  his 
money  affairs  in  order.  The  question  of  the  sale  of  an 
estate  he  had  inherited  appears  to  have  been  raised,  and 
is  the  occasion  of  the  frank  opinion  he  expresses  as  to 
his  own  capacity  for  the  management  of  financial 
business. 

"  I  shall  tell  him,"  he  writes  to  the  Duchess,  "  that 
any  arrangement  he  may  make  with  your  consent  I 
shall  always  attend  to.  I  own,  if  I  were  to  sell  entirely, 
I  should  feel  afraid  of  myself ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
if  I  were  to  have  so  much  a  year  for  it,  I  think  I  should 
get  on  more  prudently.  .  .  .  As  to  going  home  " — on 
this  point  he  is  decided — "  I  shall  certainly  not  go 
home  about  it." 

Though  not  with  the  object  of  making  a  settlement 
of  his  money  matters,  Lord  Edward  did  in  fact  return 
to  Ireland  even  before  the  date  desired  by  his  brother. 


%ifc  of  %ovo  Eowarfc  3flt3(5eralb  45 

By  the  spring  of  the  year  1783  he  was  at  home  again, 
having  been  absent  nearly  two  years,  and  bringing  back 
with  him  the  experience  of  active  military  operations 
which  he  had  been  anxious  to  acquire,  and  which  he 
expected  to  prove  of  so  much  service  to  him  in  years 
to  come. 


CHAPTER    IV 

1783— 1786 

Returned  to  Parliament — Life  in  Ireland — Tedium — The  Con- 
dition of  the  Country — Westminster  Election — Lord 
Edward's  Family — Lord  Edward  in  Love— At  Woolwich 
— In  the  Channel  Islands — Letters  to  his  Mother. 

IT  was  in  the  summer  of  1783,  a  few  months 
after  his  return  to  Ireland,  that  Lord  Edward's 
political  career  may  be  said  to  have  been  formally 
inaugurated,  by  his  finding  himself  a  member  of  the 
new  Parliament,  returned  to  it  by  his  brother  the 
Duke  as  member  for  Athy. 

In  its  ultimate  consequences  the  event  was  of  the 
last  importance,  turning,  as  in  course  of  time  it  must 
necessarily  have  done,  his  attention  to  the  condition 
of  the  country  and  its  relations  to  England.  But  at 
the  present  moment  it  was  another  aspect  of  the  affair 
by  which  he  was  principally  affected. 

Life  in  Ireland,  in  Parliament  or  out  of  it,  pre- 
sented a  violent  contrast  to  that  which  he  had  lately 
led.  Lord  Edward  frankly  confessed  that  he  found 
the  tedium  of  that  life  intolerable.  It  was  no  wonder. 
It  does  not  appear  that  he  formed  any  close  friend- 
ships,   at  least   as   yet,   among   the  men  who   were  to 

46 


Xtfe  of  OLoro  Bowaro  3Fit3<Sei:alo  47 

be  his  associates  at  a  later  date  ;  nor,  though  he  was 
punctual  in  his  attendance  at  the  House,  and  from 
the  first  consistent  in  his  adherence  to  the  popular 
side,  was  he  likely  at  twenty- one  to  find  politics 
sufficiently  engrossing  to  compensate  for  the  absence 
of  the  excitement  of  the  last  two  years.  It  is  more 
probable  that  he  regarded  them  chiefly  in  the  light 
of  an  interruption  to  the  serious  business  of  life, 
represented  by  the  art  of  killing,  and,  in  case  of 
necessity,  being  killed,  after  the  most  approved  method 
of  military  science. 

Possibly,  as  he  felt  himself  insensibly  drawn  into 
the  current  of  the  interests  of  those  by  whom  he 
was  surrounded,  the  distaste  with  which  he  regarded 
his  new  environment  may  have  been  modified  ;  but 
at  the  outset  his  sentiments  were  plainly  enough 
expressed. 

"  I  have  made  fifty  attempts  to  write  to  you,"  he 
tells  his  mother,  just  then  in  England,  in  a  letter 
dated  from  his  brother's  house,  "  but  have  as  often 
failed,  from  want  of  subject.  Really  a  man  must 
be  a  clever  fellow  who,  after  being  a  week  at  Carton 

and   seeing    nobody  but  Mr.    and   Mrs.    B ,    can 

write  a  letter.  If  you  insist  on  letters,  I  must  write 
you  an  account  of  my  American  campaigns  over 
again,  as  that  is  the  only  thing  I  remember.  I  am 
just  now  interrupted  by  the  horrid  parson,  and  he 
can  find  nothing  to  do  but  to  sit  at  my  elbow." 

For  once,  it  is  clear,  Lord  Edward's  sweet  temper 
was    ruffled.       The    only    thing    which  he  thoroughly 


48  Xife  of  Xoio  Bbwaro  tfit36eralb 

approved,  as  we  find  from  a  letter  a  month  later,  was 
of  his  mother's  intention  of  giving  up  going  abroad 
in  order  to  bear  him  company  in  Ireland.  Her 
presence,  he  told  her,  was  the  only  thing  that  could 
make  him  happy  there.  When  she  was  absent  he 
found  home  life  very  insipid. 

Yet  the  situation  in  Ireland,  in  Parliament  and  out 
of  it,  was  one  which  might  have  been  expected  to 
vary  the  monotony  of  existence,  and  to  impart  to  it 
some  flavour  of  excitement,  especially  to  one  who 
might  look  to  have  a  hand  in  the  direction  of 
affairs. 

During  the  previous  year  Parliamentary  independence 
had  been  won.  But  to  be  effective,  as  events  too 
clearly  proved,  it  should  have  been  accompanied  by 
reform.  A  situation  under  which  the  members  of 
the  Upper  House  returned,  for  their  pocket  boroughs, 
a  majority  of  those  of  the  Lower,  was  a  travesty  of 
Parliamentary  government.  Opinions,  however,  differed 
as  to  the  next  step  to  be  taken.  Within  the  walls  of 
the  House  itself  party  spirit  was  running  so  high  that 
only  by  the  interposition  of  Parliament  was  a  duel 
between  Flood  and  Grattan,  the  two  great  popular 
leaders,  averted.  The  country  at  large  was  in  a 
condition  of  ferment  and  agitation,  alike  constitutional 
and  the  reverse  ;  and  in  some  parts  was  so  given  over 
to  lawlessness  that,  to  cite  one  instance  alone,  it  had 
been  possible  for  the  notorious  George  Robert  Fitz- 
Gerald — a  connection  by  marriage  of  the  Duke  of 
Leinster's — to  keep  his  father,  with  whom  he  had  had 


%itc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3Fit3<3eralb  49 

a  disagreement,  in  confinement  for  the  term  of  five 
months,  and,  with  cannon  mounted  round  the  house 
where  he  was  imprisoned,  to  defy  for  that  period 
the  action  of  the  authorities.  The  Volunteer  movement, 
too,  was  at  its  height,  losing  daily  more  and  more  of 
its  original  character,  to  assume  an  attitude  of  hostile 
menace  towards  the  Government,  while  Dublin  itself 
was  in  so  turbulent  a  condition  that  outrages  in  the 
streets  were  of  daily  occurrence. 

All  this,  one  would  imagine,  must  have  offered  a 
variation  to  the  routine  of  daily  life  during  the  first 
year  of  Lord  Edward's  initiation  into  Parliamentary 
afFairs.  Nor  were  other  incidents  wanting  to  break  the 
monotony  which  might  have  attached  to  it — incidents 
such  as  that  which  occurred  in  November,  1783,  when 
that  strange  and  picturesque  personage,  Lord  Bristol, 
Bishop  of  Derry — one  of  the  most  anomalous  figures 
of  the  day — drove  into  Dublin  to  attend  the  Volunteer 
Convention  in  royal  state,  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  six 
horses  with  purple  trappings,  and  escorted  by  a  troop 
of  volunteer  dragoons  under  the  command  of  that  very 
FitzGerald,  his  nephew,  who  had  successfully  held 
the  sheriff's  officers  at  bay.  Dressed  in  purple,  with 
diamond  ornaments,  the  Bishop  halted  at  the  door  of 
Parliament  House,  saluting  with  royal  dignity  those 
members — Lord  Edward,  perhaps,  amongst  them — who, 
startled  by  the  blast  of  trumpets  which  had  heralded 
his  approach,  had  crowded  to  the  door  to  ascertain 
the  cause  of  the  unusual  tumult. 

Of  the  impression  made  upon  the  new  member  by 

4 


so  Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  ffft3<3eralo 

such  events  as  these  our  means  of  forming  a  conjecture 
are  scanty.  That  his  sympathies  were  not,  so  far, 
engaged  on  the  side  represented  by  the  more  recent 
developments  of  the  Volunteer  movement  may  be 
inferred  from  a  passage  in  a  letter  of  December,  1783, 
in  which  Horace  Walpole  informs  his  correspondent 
that  "  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald  told  me  last  night 
that  he  fears  the  Volunteers  are  very  serious,  sans 
compter  the  spirits  which  the  late  revolution  here  may 
give  them."  He  never  took  part  at  this  time  in  the 
debates  in  the  House,  and  there  is  a  gap  in  his 
correspondence  with  his  mother,  by  which  light  might 
have  been  thrown  on  the  subject,  explained  by  the 
fact  that  during  the  next  two  years  his  home  was  for 
the  most  part  made,  though  not  without  intervals  spent 
in  London  or  Dublin,  with  the  Duchess  and  Mr. 
Ogilvie  at  their  Irish  residence,  Frescati. 

One  of  his  visits  to  London,  occurring  during  the 
year  which  succeeded  his  return  to  Ireland,  was  spent 
after  a  fashion  which  must  have  afforded  a  welcome 
relief  to  the  monotony  of  which  he  complained. 
In  the  General  Election  of  1784,  when  the  contest 
in  Westminster  was  attracting  more  attention  than 
any  other  throughout  the  kingdom,  Lord  Edward 
was  one  of  those  engaged  in  canvassing  the  constitu- 
ency on  behalf  of  his  cousin  Charles  James  Fox — a 
circumstance  mentioned  by  Lord  Holland  as  having, 
coupled  with  certain  proceedings  of  his  nephew's  in 
the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  caused  considerable 
annoyance   to    the    Duke    of  Richmond,    at  the  time 


Xife  of  Xoro  Bovvaro  ffit30eralo  5 * 

a  supporter  of  the  Tory  party.  It  is  further  hinted 
by  the  same  authority  that  the  Duke  gave  practical 
proof  of  this  annoyance  at  a  later  date,  in  matters 
connected  with  the  professional  advancement  of  the 
culprit. 

Whether  or  not  this  was  the  case,  the  excitement 
supplied  by  the  fight  must  have  afforded  Lord  Edward 
ample  compensation  for  any  displeasure  testified  by 
his  uncle  then  or  thereafter.  Court  and  Government 
were  united  in  the  strength  of  their  opposition  to 
Fox's  candidature  ;  while  among  the  powerful  ad- 
herents who  threw  the  weight  of  their  personal 
influence  into  the  balance  in  favour  of  the  Whigs 
were  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the  beautiful  Duchess 
of  Devonshire. 

It  was  a  hard  struggle,  and  when  the  popular 
candidate  was  returned,  though  not  at  the  head  of 
the  poll,  his  success  was  celebrated  by  a  procession 
to  Devonshire  House,  graced  by  the  ostrich  feathers 
of  the  Heir-apparent,  by  fetes  at  Carlton  House  itself, 
and  by  a  dinner  at  Mrs.  Crewe's,  in  which  the  royal 
supporter  appeared  wearing  the  Whig  colours.  At 
all  these  festivities  in  honour  of  the  victory  he  had 
helped  to  win,  Lord  Edward  doubtless  assisted,  before 
returning  reluctantly  to  the  routine  of  ordinary  life 
at  Dublin. 

If,  however,  existence  there  was  not  without  its 
drawbacks,  there  was  another  side  to  it ;  and  as  he 
grew  more  habituated  to  life  under  its  new  conditions, 
and  as  the  reaction  from  the  exhilaration  afforded  by 


52  xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt3(3eralo 

the  campaigning  experiences  of  the  last  two  years 
became  less  oppressive,  he  must  have  recognised  the 
fact  that  Ireland,  especially  to  a  man  of  his  social 
temperament,  offered  advantages  of  its  own. 

Whatever  society  was  to  be  had,  in  Dublin  or 
elsewhere,  was  naturally  open  to  him  ;  and  many 
members  of  his  own  family  were  settled,  from 
one  cause  or  another,  within  reach.  The  Duke  of 
Leinster  lived  principally  in  his  own  country,  thus 
setting  an  example  to  less  patriotic  landlords — "  a 
most  amiable  private  gentleman,  and  a  good  and 
quiet  man,"  as  a  contemporary  describes  him,  "spend- 
ing his  rents  in  Ireland,  and  justly  idolised."  Lord 
Edward's  aunt,  too,  Lady  Louisa,  who,  herself  child- 
less, bore  her  nephew  an  affection  only  less  than 
that  of  his  mother,  had  married  Mr.  Conolly,  of 
Castletown,  near  Dublin,  said  to  be  the  wealthiest 
landed  proprietor  in  the  country ;  and  another  of 
the  Lennox  sisterhood,  Lady  Sarah — now  married, 
for  the  second  time,  to  a  Napier — also  made  her 
home  in  Ireland,  her  rare  beauty  so  little  impaired 
by  the  lapse  of  years  that  the  Prince  of  Wales,  meeting 
in  1 78 1  the  woman  who,  as  he  said,  pointing  to 
Windsor  Castle,  "  was  to  have  been  there,"  expressed 
his  approval  of  his  father's  taste,  and  his  conviction 
that,  even  in  those  distant  days,  she  could  not  have 
been  more  fair. 

It  has  already  been  observed  that  in  Lord  Edward's 
family  the  ties  of  blood  possessed  peculiar  force  ;  and 
the   opportunities   of  constant   intercourse   with    those 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eovvaro  jFit36evalo  53 

he  loved  must  have  served  to  some  extent  to  reconcile 
him  to  his  present  surroundings.  His  stepfather, 
indeed,  went  so  far  as  to  assert  that  this  particular 
period  constituted  the  happiest  time  in  the  lives  of 
any  of  the  three — himself,  his  stepson,  and  his  wife — 
who  loved  each  other  so  well.  Whether  or  not  Lord 
Edward  would  have  altogether  endorsed  the  statement, 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  it  was  approximately  true.  He 
was  twenty-one,  launched  in  a  profession  of  which 
he  was  proud,  and  in  which  he  had  already  achieved 
a  certain  amount  of  distinction.  He  was  living  under 
the  same  roof  as  a  mother  he  adored.  And  lastly, 
and  most  important  of  all,  he  was  in  the  full  swing 
of  his  first  serious  love  affair  ;  and,  threatened  with 
disappointment  though  his  hopes  might  be,  still,  "  les 
beaux  jours  quand  fetais  si  malheureux  "  are  not  un- 
frequently  the  best  worth  having  of  a  man's  life. 

The  tedium  of  existence  at  home  had  left  but  one 
thing  to  be  done.  It  was  an  expedient  for  which  Lord 
Edward's  nature  fortunately  offered  special  facilities. 
He  had  accordingly  resorted  to  it  without  loss  of 
time.     He  fell  in  love. 

The  heroine  of  this  preliminary  romance  was  Lady 
Catherine  Meade,  daughter  of  Lord  Clanwilliam,  and 
afterwards  married  to  Lord  Powerscourt.  Of  Lady 
Catherine  herself  little  is  known,  and  that  little  chiefly 
from  the  letters  of  her  lover,  written  at  a  time  when, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1786,  three  years  after 
his  return  to  Ireland,  he  was  parted  from  his  mother, 
having  placed  himself  at  Woolwich  with  a  determina- 


54  %itc  of  Xoro  Efcwatfc  ffitsGeralo 

tion  there  to  pursue  a  regular  course  of  study.  A 
military  career  was  that  to  which  he  still  looked 
forward,  and  it  is  plain  that  he  regarded  his  Parlia- 
mentary duties  in  the  light  of  a  more  or  less  irrelevant 
interlude. 

It  does  not  appear  what  share  his  mother  had  in 
deciding  him  upon  his  present  step  ;  but  it  was  pro- 
bably not  a  small  one.  Lord  Edward,  it  is  true,  was 
his  own  master.  He  had  reached  an  age  which,  a 
hundred  years  ago,  represented  a  stage  far  more 
advanced  than  at  present,  when,  at  twenty-three,  a 
man  is  often  only  just  leaving  college,  and  setting 
himself  for  the  first  time  to  make  his  reckoning  with 
the  facts  and  possibilities  of  life  and  to  decide  upon 
his  future  profession.  He  had  already  seen  active 
service,  and  had  occupied  for  more  than  two  years 
the  position  of  a  member  of  Parliament.  In  financial 
matters  he  was  independent  of  either  profession  or 
family ;  his  income,  amounting  to  something  like  eight 
hundred  a  year,  though  a  small  enough  patrimony  for 
a  duke's  son,  and  wholly  inadequate  to  incline  Lord 
Clanwilliam  to  entrust  him  with  the  future  of  his 
daughter,  being  amply  sufficient  to  supply  his  wants 
so  long  as  he  remained  unmarried. 

Yet  in  spite  of  all  this  there  was  about  him  a 
singular  and  attractive  absence  of  that  assertive  spirit 
of  independence  or  that  desire  to  emancipate  himself 
from  home  influence  or  control  which  is  so  common  a 
feature  of  the  age  which  he  had  reached.  "  As  humble 
as  a    child " — if  humility    were    indeed   a    quality    of 


%\fc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit36eralo  55 

childhood,  which  may  be  questioned — was  part  of  a 
description  given  of  him  at  a  much  later  date,  when 
he  occupied  the  post  of  the  recognised  chief  of  the 
national  party  in  Ireland  ;  and  at  every  stage  of  his 
career  it  would  seem  to  have  been  a  true  one. 

The  deference  he  uniformly  showed  to  his  mother's 
opinions,  so  long  as  such  deference  did  not  imply 
a  surrender  of  principle,  should  be  borne  in  mind, 
since  it  accentuates  the  strength  of  the  convictions 
which  afterwards  forced  him  into  an  attitude  of 
opposition,  not  only  to  the  views  of  the  Duchess,  but 
of  most  of  those  he  held  dear. 

To  his  mother  he  continued  for  the  present  to  refer 
all  his  projects,  all  his  schemes  ;  and  it  is  clear  that 
he  would  not  at  this  time  have  entered  upon  any  plan 
of  life  which  should  not  have  received  the  sanction  of 
her  approval. 

A  curious  proof  of  the  strength  of  the  influence  she 
retained  is  furnished  by  a  letter  in  which  his  dread  is 
expressed  of  a  corresponding  power,  should  it  be 
exerted  by  Lady  Clanwilliam  over  her  daughter  in  a 
direction  adverse  to  his  hopes. 

"Suppose  you  were  here,"  he  writes,  "and  to  say 
to  me,  '  If  you  ever  think  of  that  girl,  I  will  never 
forgive  you,'  what  should  I  do  ?  even  I,  who  dote  on 
Kate  !  " 

Whether  her  son's  attachment  to  Lady  Catherine 
had  the  Duchess's  approval  ;  or  whether,  which  is  more 
probable,  perceiving  it  to  be  hopeless,  it  was  by  her 
advice  that  Lord  Edward  repaired  to  England — a  plan 


56  %ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3(3eralo 

which  possessed  the  double  advantage  of  affording  him 
an  opportunity  of  pursuing  his  military  studies  and  of 
being  calculated  to  put  an  early  end  to  an  affair  which 
she  probably  regarded  in  no  very  serious  light — can 
only  be  matter  of  conjecture.  What  is  certain  is  that, 
if  the  obliteration  of  Lady  Catherine's  image  had  been 
her  object,  her  expectations  were  fully  justified  by 
the  event. 

At  first,  indeed,  it  might  have  seemed  likely  to 
prove  otherwise.  Lord  Edward  was  genuinely  and 
honestly  in  love.  It  was  not  his  custom  to  suffer  in 
silence,  and  his  letters  to  his  mother  reflect  faithfully, 
and  with  a  charming  and  naive  sincerity,  the  fluctuations 
to  which  he  was  subject,  and  the  varying  phases  of  his 
mind,  ranging  from  heart-broken  discouragement  to 
complete  recovery. 

Mr.  Ogilvie  was  at  first  also  in  London,  having 
probably  accompanied  his  stepson  to  England  ;  and 
the  two  spent  some  time  together  before  Lord  Edward 
carried  into  effect  his  intention  of  entering  himself  at 
Woolwich. 

It  was  spring  and  London  at  its  gayest.  Lord 
Edward  was  full  of  engagements,  dining  out  every 
day  and  dancing  all  night.  But  all  this,  he  was 
careful  to  explain,  did  not  afford  him  the  slightest 
enjoyment  ;  nothing  now  interested  him  in  what  he 
"  used  to  call  a  life  of  pleasure "  ;  so  little  was  his 
attention  engaged  in  what  he  was  doing  that  he  was 
constantly  late  for  dinner  wherever  he  dined.  In 
Mr.  Ogilvie's  society  alone  he  found  real  satisfaction. 


^HeST^UT  H,LL,  MA  t 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfitsOeralo  57 

He  complained  indeed  that  his  step-father  was  not 
at  all  soft  or  tender  ;  but  "  I  make  him  talk  of  Kate, 
whether  he  will  or  not  " —  poor  Mr.  Ogilvie  ! — u  and 
indeed  of  you  all.  I  find,  now  I  am  away,  I  like 
you  all  better  than  I  thought  I  did."  And  then 
once  more  he  recurs  to  his  own  grievances.  "  I 
never  think  of  going  to  anything  pleasant  myself; 
I  am  led  to  it  by  somebody.  I  depend  entirely  upon 
other  people,  and  then  insensibly je  m 'amuse" 

There  were  few  situations  from  which,  whether 
sensibly  or  not,  Lord  Edward  did  not  succeed  in 
extracting  some  amusement,  but  at  the  present 
moment  he  really  seems  to  have  been  too  much  de- 
jected to  find  it  in  London  society  ;  at  any  rate,  he 
presently  repaired  to  Woolwich,  to  try  whether  work 
might  be  more  to  his  taste  than  what,  at  twenty- 
three,  he  had  ceased  to  call  pleasure. 

At  first  little  improvement  is  perceptible  in  his 
condition  ;  and  from  the  tenor  of  his  letters  one 
might  almost  be  led  to  suspect  that,  if  the  Duchess 
had  had  a  hand  in  sending  him  away,  he  was  bent 
upon  demonstrating  to  her  the  fruitlessness  of  the 
experiment.  He  is,  he  tells  her,  very  busy — it  is, 
in  fact,  his  only  resource,  for  he  has  no  pleasure  in 
anything.  He  acts  upon  her  advice  and  tries  to 
drive  away  care,  but  without  success.  And  then 
comes  the  first  confession  of  some  symptoms  of 
amendment.  "  My  natural  good  spirits,  however, 
and  the  hopes  of  some  change,  keep  me  up  a  little." 
And   he   hopes  the  Duchess  will  make  him   as   happy 


58  Xife  of  %ot:o  Eowaro  3fft3(Beralo 

as  she  can  by  giving  accounts  in  her  letters — it  is 
easy  to  guess  of  what. 

"  I  need  not  say,"  he  goes  on,  "  I  hope  you  are 
kind  to  pretty  dear  Kate  ;  I  am  sure  you  are.  I 
want  you  to  like  her  almost  as  much  as  I  do — it 
is  a  feeling  I  always  have  with  people  I  love  ex- 
cessively. Did  you  not  feel  to  love  her  very  much, 
and  wish  for  me,  when  you  saw  her  look  pretty  at 
the  Cottage  ? " 

By  July  Mr.  Ogilvie  had  returned  to  Ireland  ;  and, 
unable  to  depend  any  longer  upon  his  stepfather  to 
send  home  reports  of  his  proceedings,  he  was  forced 
to  take  to  more  regular  letter-writing  on  his  own 
account.  "  By  the  way,  I  wish  Tony  could  write," 
he  says  in  parenthesis  ;  though  whether  the  faithful 
Tony's  reports  of  his  master's  condition  would  have 
reconciled  the  Duchess  to  silence  on  his  own  part 
may  well  be  questioned.  He  was  working  very 
hard — a  change,  no  doubt,  after  two  years  in  Dublin 
with  nothing  to  do  except  to  give  his  vote  when 
required — but  confessed  candidly  that,  if  he  had  le 
cceur  content,  a  life  of  idleness  and  indolence  was  the 
one  which  suited  him  best.  He  evidently  entertained 
some  apprehensions  as  to  the  effect  of  her  husband's 
masculine  common  sense  upon  his  mother  and  her 
letters.  She  was  not  to  let  Ogilvie  spoil  her  by 
telling  her  she  "  would  be  the  ruin  of  that  boy." 
If  the  Duchess  minded  her  husband  and  did  not  go 
on  writing  pleasant  letters,  always  saying  something 
about    Kate,    he   would    not    answer   her — would    not 


%ifc  of  Xovo  Eowaro  jfit3(5eralo  59 

indeed  write  at  all.  Here,  however,  another  con- 
fession is  made — he  was  not  in  such  bad  spirits  as 
in  London.  •*  I  have  not  time  hardly.  In  my 
evening's  walk,  however,  I  am  as  bad  as  ever."  The 
nature  of  that  walk  he  had  explained  in  a  letter  to 
his  brother  ;  "  but  upon  my  honour,"  he  adds,  "  I 
sometimes  think  of  you  in  it " — which  assurance 
is  perhaps  all  that  can  be  looked  for  by  a  mother 
whose  son  is  in  love.  "  I  wish,  my  dear  mother," 
he  goes  on,  suddenly  throwing  Woolwich  and  military 
advancement  and  all  else  to  the  winds — "  I  wish  you 
would  insist  on  my  coming  to  you." 

The  Duchess  did  not  "  insist "  upon  it  ;  and  in  the 
summer  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  making  an  official 
survey  of  the  Channel  Islands,  took  his  nephew 
with  him. 

Further  amendment  in  the  state  of  Lord  Edward's 
spirits  was  duly  reported  to  his  mother  from  St.  Helier. 

"  I  have  been  in  much  better  spirits,"  he  confesses 
frankly,  "  everything  being  new.  ...  I  shall  get  a 
great  deal  of  knowledge  of  a  part  of  my  profession 
in  this  tour  ;  for  the  Duke  goes  about  looking  at 
all  the  strong  places,  and  I  have  an  opportunity  of 
hearing  him  and  Colonel  Moncrieffe  talk  the  matter 
all  over." 

He  was  still,  however,  unfeignedly  anxious  to  get 
home,  though  he  would  not  carry  his  wishes  into 
effect  against  the  Duchess's  judgment  ;  and  she,  no 
doubt  fortified  by  Mr.  Ogilvie's  representations,  was 
proof  against  his  importunities. 


60  %nc  of  %ovb  TEowavb  3flt3<Seralfc> 

"  Don't  you  think  I  might  come  home  after  this 
tour  ? "  he  asks  persuasively.  "  I  begin  now,  my 
dearest  mother,  to  wish  much  to  see  you  ;  besides, 
I  think  that,  after  all  this,  I  could  do  a  great  deal 
of  good  at  Black  Rock,  as  my  mind  has  really  taken 
a  turn  for  business.  Thinking  of  Kate  disturbs  me 
more  than  seeing  her  would  do.  I  do  really  love 
her  more,  if  possible,  than  when  I  left  you.  ...  I 
must  come  home  ;  it  is  the  only  chance  I  have  against 
la  dragonne  "  (Lady  Clanwilliam). 

Besides,  he  proceeds  to  demonstrate,  making  use 
of  a  line  of  argument  which  might  be  expected  to 
appeal,  more  strongly  than  his  desire  to  circumvent 
Lady  Clanwilliam,  to  the  authorities  at  home,  he 
never  worked  so  well  as  with  Ogilvie  ;  and  his 
mathematics,  especially  necessary  in  his  profession, 
would  gain  more  by  his  stepfather's  instructions  than 
by  those  of  any  teacher  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Channel.  Ogilvie,  of  course,  he  adds,  with  a  touch 
of  petulance,  would  be  against  his  coming ;  "  but  no 
matter,  you  will  be  glad  to  have  me  on  any  terms, 
and  I  am  never  so  happy  as  when  with  you,  dearest 
mother." 

It  says  much  for  the  Duchess's  strength  of  mind 
that  she  was  unconvinced  by  this  fond  flattery. 
She  evidently  refused  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  the 
charmer,  charmed  he  never  so  wisely,  for  in  August 
Lord  Edward  was  back  again  in  England,  detained 
at  Goodwood,  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  house,  by  a 
sprained    ancle.       "  I    do    think,    what    with   legs  and 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3<3eralt>  61 

other  things,"  he  told  his  mother,  "  I  am  the  most 
unlucky  dog  that  ever  lived." 

He  set  to  work  again,  nevertheless,  this  time  at 
mechanics,  and  appears  to  have  put  the  idea  of  a 
present  return  to  Ireland  out  of  his  head.  He  had, 
indeed,  started  another  scheme,  concerning  which  he 
was,  as  usual,  anxious  to  have  his  mother's  opinion. 
He  was,  like  some  other  people,  very  wise  on  paper. 

Goodwood  was  full  of  temptations  to  idleness ; 
Stoke,  another  uncle's  house,  even  more  alluring,  and 
tfje  suis  foible."  What  would  the  Duchess  think  of  his 
going  for  four  months,  till  the  meeting  of  Parliament 
in  January,  to  study  at  a  Scotch  university,  where  he 
would  be  able  to  give  his  whole  mind  to  work  ?  It 
was  a  scheme  which  offered  many  advantages.  There 
were,  however,  drawbacks  to  the  plan,  of  which  he 
possibly  became  more  conscious  so  soon  as  he  had 
reduced  it  to  black  and  white.  It  was  three  months 
since  he  had  seen  his  mother  ;  four  more  would  be 
"  a  great  while."  If  she  decided  upon  passing  the 
interval  before  the  meeting  of  Parliament  abroad — 
suddenly  the  Scotch  university  fades  out  of  sight  as 
if  it  had  never  existed — he  was  determined  to  go  also 
and  remain  with  her  till  recalled  by  his  Parliamentary 
duties. 

If  he  had  been  three  months  absent  from  his  mother, 
there  was  some  one  else  from  whom  he  had  likewise 
been  absent  for  the  like  period,  and  that  was  Lady 
Catherine  Meade  ;  and  though  he  was  careful  to  protest 
that  his  sentiments  with  regard  to  her  had  remained 


62  OLife  of  Xorb  Eowaro  3fft3<3eralo 

unalterably  the  same,  a  rival  attraction,  towards  the  end 
of  August,  had  begun  to  make  itself  felt.  He  was 
right  when,  in  planning  that  visit  to  Scotland,  he  had 
anticipated  distractions,  should  he  remain  in  his  present 
surroundings.  In  these  matters,  as  well  as  in  those 
relating  to  money,  he  placed  a  just  estimate  upon  his 
powers  of  resisting  temptation,  whether  to  extravagance 
or  to  idleness.  Besides,  "  si  on  na  pas  ce  quon  aime, 
il  faut  aimer  ce  quon  a"  ;  and  it  was  not  likely  that 
a  man  of  Lord  Edward's  temperament  should  find 
himself  for  long  together  without  an  object  for  his 
affections  from  which  he  was  not  separated  by  the 
breadth  of  the  Irish  Channel. 

That  the  possibility  of  infidelity  had  begun  to  make 
itself  felt  was  apparent,  not  only  in  his  protestations 
of  changelessness,  but  also  in  the  credit  he  took  to 
himself  for  the  fact  that,  though  he  had  been  staying 
at  Stoke,  the  house  of  his  uncle  Lord  George  Lennox, 
and  had  there  enjoyed  opportunities  of  intercourse  with 
Lord  George's  three  daughters,  he  still  remained 
faithful. 

"  Though  I  have  been  here  ever  since  the  Duke 
went,"  he  writes,  not  without  some  pride,  "  I  am  as 
constant  as  ever,  and  go  on  doting  upon  her  ;  this 
is,  I  think,  the  greatest  proof  I  have  given  yet.  Being 
here  has  put  me  in  much  better  spirits,  they  are  so 
delightful." 

And  most  delightful  of  all  was  Georgina  Lennox, 
the  youngest  of  the  sisters,  then  about  twenty-one. 
Giving  a  description  of  this  niece  some  six  years  earlier, 


Xife  ot  Xorfc  Eowarfc  ifit3<3eralb  63 

Lady  Sarah  Napier  had  mentioned  that  she  was  con- 
sidered to  be  very  like  herself,  which  would  seem 
to  imply  that  she  was  gifted  with  her  full  share  of 
the  family  beauty  ;  and  with  the  wit,  the  power  of 
satire,  and  the  good-nature  with  which  she  was  said, 
even  at  fifteen,  to  be  endowed,  she  must  have  been 
a  dangerous  rival  to  the  absent  Lady  Catherine.  A 
fortnight  later  than  the  last  letter  quoted  another  was 
written,  which  contained  a  clear  foreshadowing  of  the 
end,  though  still  accompanied  by  the  protestation  of 
unalterable  attachment. 

"  I  love  her  more  than  anything  yet,  though  I  have 
seen  a  great  deal  of  Georgina.  I  own  fairly  I  am 
not  in  such  bad  spirits  as  I  was,  particularly  when  I 
am  with  Georgina,  whom  I  certainly  love  better  than 
any  of  her  sisters.  However,  I  can  safely  say  I  have 
not  been  infidelle  [sic]  to  Kate — whenever  I  thought  of 
her,  which  I  do  very  often,  though  not  so  constantly  as 
usual ;  this  entirely  between  you  and  me.  ...  I  love 
nothing  in  comparison  with  you,  my  dearest  mother, 
after  all." 

It  is  a  precarious  and  intermittent  supremacy  at 
most  that  mothers  enjoy,  but  they  must  make  the 
best  of  it.  The  Duchess  had,  in  fact,  only  exchanged 
one  rival  for  another  ;  but  Lady  Catherine  Meade  had 
passed  for  ever  out  of  her  young  lover's  life,  and  her 
place  in  it  knew  her  no  more. 


CHAPTER   V 

1786— 1788 

Lord  Edward  and  His  Mother — Increasing  Interest  in 
Politics — The  Duke  of  Rutland  Viceroy — Lord  Edward's 
Position  in  Parliament  and  Outside  It — Visit  to  Spain — 
General  O'Hara. 

IF  Lord  Edward  was  once  more  in  love,  he  said  less 
about  it  than  when  Lady  Catherine  had  been  the 
heroine  of  his  boyish  romance.  It  does  not  appear 
that,  even  to  his  mother,  his  constant  confidant,  he 
mentioned,  during  the  next  few  months,  the  passion 
which  had  taken  hold  of  him.  His  silence  may 
possibly  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  this  second 
affair  was  a  more  serious  matter  than  the  first  ;  or, 
again,  he  may  still  have  been  young  enough  to  be 
shamefaced  over  his  own  inconstancy.  At  any  rate, 
his  reticence  marks  a  new  stage  in  his  development. 

One  fancies,  too,  that  other  changes  are  perceptible  ; 
that  his  laughter  is  a  trifle  less  frequent  and  whole- 
hearted ;  that  he  has  become  a  little  older,  a  little 
wiser,  than  when  "  pretty  dear  Kate  "  was  his  constant 
theme.  Perhaps  something  of  the  first  freshness,  so 
gay  and  so  young  as  to  be  almost  childish,  is  gone. 
And    if  his   passionate  love  for  his  mother  had  lost 


Xifc  of  Xoro  Eowavo  jfit36eralo  65 

nothing  of  its  fervour — the  devoted  affection  which, 
in  its  clinging  tenderness  and  open  expression,  was 
more  like  that  of  a  daughter  than  a  son — yet  even 
upon  this  it  would  seem  that  a  change  had  passed  ; 
that  it  had  become  graver  and  deeper  than  before — an 
affection  which  was  shadowed  by  that  foreboding 
apprehensiveness  of  possible  loss  which  belongs  to 
the  first  realisation  of  the  transitoriness  of  all  things 
human. 

There  had,  however,  been  nothing  to  mar  the  glad- 
ness of  their  meeting  after  the  months  which,  to  one 
at  least  of  the  two,  had  seemed  so  long.  The  Duchess 
had  passed  through  England  on  her  way  abroad  in 
the  autumn  of  the  year  which  had  witnessed  the  death 
of  her  boy's  first  fancy  ;  and  mother  and  son  had  met 
once  more  at  her  brother's  house,  where  Lord  Edward 
had  eagerly  awaited  her. 

"  Do  not  stay  too  long  at  Oxford,"  he  wrote  when 
she  was  already  on  her  way  ;  "  for  if  you  do,  I  shall 
die  with  impatience  before  you  arrive.  1  can  hardly 
write,  I  am  so  happy." 

It  was  some  months  before  the  two  made  up  their 
minds  to  separate  again.  The  Scotch  scheme,  not- 
withstanding all  it  had  had  to  recommend  it,  had 
evidently  died  at  birth,  for  there  is  no  further  mention 
of  any  such  plan  ;  and  on  the  Duchess's  departure 
Lord  Edward  accompanied  her  abroad,  remaining  with 
her  at  Nice  until  recalled  to  Ireland  by  the  opening 
of  Parliament. 

Dublin  seems   to  have  had   no   more  attraction  for 

5 


66  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowavo  fftt3<Beralo 

him,  on  his  return  thither,  than  formerly  ;  and,  especially 
in  the  absence  of  his  mother,  had  little  to  recommend 
it.  He  missed  her  at  every  turn,  and  told  her  so  in 
language  which  must  have  been  dear  to  the  Duchess's 
heart.  To  visit  her  own  home  at  Frescati  and  to 
find  her  absent,  to  go  to  bed  in  the  familiar  house 
without  wishing  her  good-night,  to  come  down  in  the 
morning  and  not  to  see  her,  to  look  at  her  flowers 
without  having  her  to  lean  upon  him — all  this  was 
"  very  bad  indeed."  "  You  are,"  he  tells  her  in 
another  letter,  with  one  of  those  touches  of  melancholy 
that  are  new — "you  are,  after  all,  what  I  love  best  in 
the  world.  I  always  return  to  you,  and  find  it  is  the 
only  love  I  do  not  deceive  myself  in.  ...  In  thinking 
over  with  myself  what  misfortunes  I  could  bear,  I 
found  there  was  one  I  could  not ; — but  God  bless  you  !  " 

There  is,  alas  !  no  making  terms  with  Fate  ;  and 
whatever  has  to  be  borne  can  be  borne.  But  the 
misfortune  which  Lord  Edward  felt  would  have  been 
intolerable  was  spared  him.  His  mother  outlived  him, 
to  mourn  his  loss. 

Another  significant  change  is  apparent  about  this 
time.  His  interest,  his  personal  concern,  so  to  speak, 
in  politics  was  evidently  deepening  to  a  marked  degree. 
Yet  here,  too,  the  aspect  of  affairs  was  discouraging. 

In  the  country  at  large  the  Whiteboy  disturbances 
had  spread  to  an  alarming  extent,  carrying  with  them 
every  species  of  crime  and  outrage  ;  enlisting  on  the 
side  of  Government  some  of  those  who  had  hitherto 
remained    either    in    opposition    or    had    preserved    a 


Xife  of  Xoro  Bbwaro  fftt3<5eralo  67 

neutral  attitude,  and  uniting  together  all  parties  in  the 
effort  to  check  the  growing  disaffection. 

From  this  cause  and  from  others  the  political 
situation,  in  contrast  to  the  agrarian,  was  one  of 
exceptional  tranquillity.  The  Viceroyalty  of  the  young 
Duke  of  Rutland — not  ten  years  older  than  Lord 
Edward  himself — had  been  popular.  Although  already 
impoverished  by  losses  at  play,  his  hospitalities  were 
conducted  on  a  scale  of  magnificence  surpassing  in 
brilliancy  even  that  of  the  court  he  represented,  and 
after  a  gayer  fashion  than  was  the  case  at  Carlton 
House,  of  the  "  decorous  indecorum  "  of  which,  to 
gether  with  the  "  dull  regularity  of  its  irregularities," 
the  Due  de  Chartres,  on  his  first  visit  to  England,  is 
reported  to  have  complained.  The  young  Duke  was 
honourable  and  generous,  his  wife  beautiful — they 
were,  indeed,  said  to  be  the  handsomest  couple  in 
Ireland — and  between  them  they  had  worked  a  revo- 
lution in  Irish  society,  not  altogether  for  the  better, 
and  which,  with  the  sudden  relaxation  of  manners  that 
accompanied  it,  was  far  from  pleasing  to  the  stricter 
censors  of  morality,  "  accustomed,"  says  a  contemporary 
historian,  "  to  the  almost  undeviating  decorum  of  the 
Irish  females." 

But  whatever  might  be  the  effect,  upon  a  society 
hitherto  distinguished  for  its  purity,  of  the  absence 
of  dignity  and  restraint  which  marked  the  Viceregal 
entertainments,  the  spirit  of  good  fellowship  engendered 
by  conviviality  is  not  without  its  use  in  smoothing 
away  political  rancour  and  bitterness  ;  and  the  Duke's 


68  %itc  of  %ovo  jEbwavo  ffit3<5eral& 

splendid  hospitalities  had  drawn  within  the  circle  of 
his  influence  many  who  might  otherwise  have  stood 
apart  from  it.  The  success  of  the  system  was  apparent 
in  Parliament.  "  It  would  not  have  been  supposed 
possible,  even  three  years  ago,"  wrote  the  Chief 
Secretary,  Orde,  "  to  have  attained  almost  unanimity 
in  the  House  of  Commons  to  pass  a  Bill  of  Coercion 
upon  the  groundwork  of  the  English  Riot  Act." 

What  Lord  Edward  could  do  to  lessen  the  unanimity 
upon  which  the  Chief  Secretary's  congratulations  were 
based  had  been  done  ;  and  throughout  the  session  he 
steadily  adhered  to  the  small  minority  which  opposed 
the  Bill,  together  with  other  like  measures.  His  tone, 
however,  with  regard  to  the  political  outlook  was  in 
private  one  of  discouragement,  though  not  of  that  dis- 
couragement which  loses  heart  to  continue  the  fight. 

"  When  one  has  any  great  object  to  carry,"  he  wrote, 
"  one  must  expect  disappointments,  and  not  be  diverted 
from  one's  object  by  them,  or  even  appear  to  mind 
them.  I  therefore  say  to  everybody  that  I  think  we 
are  going  on  well.  The  truth  is,"  he  adds,  however, 
candidly,  "  the  people  one  has  to  do  with  are  a  bad 
set.  I  mean  the  whole,  for  really  I  believe  those  we 
act  with  are  the  best." 

It  was  in  the  course  of  this  year  that  he  made  a 
speech,  upon  a  motion  of  Grattan's  dealing  with  the 
question  of  tithes,  which  helps  to  define  both  the 
extent  of  his  present  sympathy  with  the  popular 
agitation  and  perhaps  its  limitations.  His  attitude 
was  still  that  of  a  man  not  inclined  to  yield  to  violence 


Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  ffft3<3eralo  69 

the  concessions  demanded  by  justice.  Tithes,  he  said, 
having  been  a  grievance  for  thirty  years,  it  became 
the  wisdom  of  the  house  to  enquire  into  them.  While 
the  people  were  quiet,  no  enquiry  was  made  ;  while 
they  were  outrageous,  no  enquiry  perhaps  ought  to 
be  made  ;  but  certainly  it  was  not  beneath  the  dignity 
of  the  House  to  say  that  an  enquiry  should  be  made 
when  the  people  returned  to  peace  and  quietness  again. 
He  had  to  be  taught  by  the  lessons  of  experience 
that  it  was  by  the  methods  he  then  deprecated,  and 
by  them  alone,  that  justice  could  be  obtained. 

His  position  was  probably  at  this  time  a  lonely  one. 
He  was  drifting  away  by  insensible  degrees,  if  not 
in  affection  yet  in  opinions  and  sympathies,  from 
those  who  had  heretofore  been  his  natural  associates  ; 
while  he  had  not,  so  far,  filled  their  vacant  place.  What 
were  his  personal  relations  with  the  recognised 
Parliamentary  leaders  on  the  popular  side,  with  Flood 
and  Grattan  and  their  friends,  or  whether  he  had  any 
personal  relations  with  them  at  all  beyond  those 
necessarily  existing  between  members  of  the  same 
party,  we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining  ;  and  it  is 
impossible  to  avoid  contrasting  his  life  at  this  period, 
as  it  is  known  to  us,  with  that  of  the  group  of  men 
with  whom  he  was  presently  to  cast  in  his  lot — 
men  closely  allied  with  each  other  in  aims  and  in- 
terests, and  in  habits  of  daily  intercourse  and  constant 
interchange  of  thought. 

With  regard  to  his  own  family,  it  is  true  that 
nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  absence  of  any 


70  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfft3<3eralo 

trace    of  alienation    on    their    part   in   consequence   of 
his    identification    with    a    movement    with  which  the 
sympathy  of  most  of  them  must  have  been  small.     But 
even    affection    sometimes   leaves  a   man  lonely ;    and 
in  point  of  opinion  their  paths  were  rapidly  diverging. 
Thus    the    Duke    of  Leinster,    essentially   a  moderate 
man,    though    commonly  taking    the    popular  side   in 
Parliament  and  remaining   true   to  the  national  cause 
at    the    time    of  the    Union,    forfeited    much    of    his 
influence   and    popularity  about    this    time    by   a    dis- 
position   to     content     himself    with    the    concessions 
made  by  the  English  Government,  and  to  adhere   to 
a  waiting  policy  with  regard  to  remaining  grievances. 
He  can,  therefore,   have  had    no  sympathy  with   the 
extreme  party  to  which  Lord  Edward  was  to  be  allied  ; 
while  the  favourite    brother   of  the  latter,  Henry — of 
whom   he   once   said,   "Harry  is   perfect,"  and  whose 
letter   to   Lord   Camden,   written   under  the  influence 
of  uncontrollable  excitement  after  Lord  Edward's  death, 
speaks  of  the  uncommon  affection  which  had  subsisted 
between    the    two    from    childhood — was    presently  to 
marry    an    heiress,    and,    residing    in  his   villa  on  the 
Thames,  to  play  most  often  the  part  of  an  absentee. 
The    husband    of    his    aunt,    Lady    Louisa    Conolly, 
whose    singular    affection  for  her  nephew  has  already 
been  noticed,  had  lately,  temporarily  at  least,  deserted 
the  national  side  and  given  his  support  to  Government, 
behaving,    in    Lord    Edward's    eyes,    shabbily    in    the 
matter  ;    while    Lady   Louisa   herself  would   seem  to 
have  been  a  weak  though    affectionate  woman  ;    and, 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<3eralo  n 

judging  from  her  reference,  when  her  nephew  lay- 
dying  in  prison,  to  "dear  Lord  Castlereagh's  distress," 
was  too  easily  swayed  by  those  with  whom  she  was 
brought  into  contact  to  have  much  fellow-feeling  at  the 
service  of  such  as  were  acting  in  opposition  to  the  social 
and  class  traditions  which  belonged  to  her  position. 

All  things  considered,  the  end  of  the  session  must 
have  been  welcome  to  Lord  Edward.  Always  ready 
for  change,  he  went  abroad  so  soon  as  he  was  released 
from  his  Parliamentary  duties,  and  was  probably  still 
absent  from  Ireland  when,  in  the  autumn  of  1787,  to 
quote  Sir  Jonah  Barrington,  u  the  Duke  of  Rutland's 
incessant  conviviality  deprived  the  British  peerage  of 
an  honourable,  generous,  and  high-minded  nobleman, 
and  Ireland  of  a  Viceroy  whose  Government  did  nothing, 
and  whose  court  did  worse  than  nothing,  for  the  Irish 
people." 

Lord  Edward,  however,  had  left  politics  behind 
for  the  present,  and  had  set  himself — no  difficult  task — 
to  enjoy  his  holiday.  His  plans  included  a  visit  to 
Gibraltar  and  a  journey  through  Spain  and  Portugal. 
It  was  a  curious  coincidence  that  at  the  first  place  he 
fell  in  with  the  man,  Charles  Henry  Sirr,  from  whom 
he  was  to  receive,  eleven  years  later,  the  wound  the 
consequences  of  which  proved  fatal,  and  who  has  left 
upon  record  an  opponent's  testimony  to  the  high 
character  for  honour  borne  by  Lord  Edward. 

The  stay  of  the  latter  at  Gibraltar  was  a  pleasant 
one.  His  old  chief,  General  O'Hara,  was  attached 
to  the  staff  at  the  Rock,  finding  it  perhaps  convenient 


72  Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  tfit3<3eralo 

— if  one  is  to  judge  of  his  circumstances  by  a  state- 
ment of  Lord  Cornwallis's  to  the  effect  that  "  poor 
O'Hara  is  once  more  driven  abroad  by  his  relentless 
creditors " — to  remain  out  of  England  ;  and  the 
General  and  his  former  subordinate  were  delighted 
to  renew  their  acquaintance. 

"  He  is  pleasanter  than  ever,"  Lord  Edward  wrote, 
to  his  mother  ;  "  and  enters  into  all  one's  ideas,  fanciful 
as  well  as  comical.  We  divert  ourselves  amazingly 
with  all  the  people  here  ;  but  this  is  when  he  is  not 
1  all  over  General,'  as  he  calls  it.  ...  I  feel  grown 
quite  a  soldier  again  since  I  came  to  this  place,  and 
should  like  to  be  in  a  regiment  here  very  much." 
And  then  he  confesses  to  an  attack  of  home-sickness. 
"  I  wrote  you  the  other  day  a  letter  which  I  was 
ashamed  to  send  ;  I  had  got  up  particularly  fond  of 
you,  and  had  determined  to  give  up  all  improvement 
whatever,  and  set  out  to  you  by  the  shortest  road 
without  stopping.  ...  I  really  cannot  stay  much 
longer  without  seeing  you.  .  .  .  Often  when  I  see  a 
ship  sailing  I  think  how  glad  I  should  be  if  I  were 
aboard,  and  on  my  passage  to  you  !  " 

He  had  got  her  the  seeds  of  a  plant  which  would 
grow  at  Frescati  ;  and  had  to  hurry  off,  to  dine  with 
a  lady  who  had  been  up  to  the  elbows  in  custards  to 
receive  the  General. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  had  left  his  heart 
in  England,  Lord  Edward  seems  to  have  contrived  to 
extract  considerable  enjoyment  out  of  his  wanderings 
in  Spain,  with  a  muleteer  and   black  Tony  for   com- 


%itc  of  %ovb  Efcwarfc  ffit3(3eral£>  73 

panions.  He  was  popular  wherever  he  went  ;  and 
so  ready  to  make  friends  with  those  with  whom  he 
was  brought  into  contact,  that,  as  he  told  his  mother, 
there  was  hardly  a  place  through  which  he  passed  in 
which  he  did  not  leave  an  acquaintance  with  whom  he 
felt  quite  sorry  to  part.  In  spite,  however,  of  his 
delight  in  the  novelty  of  all  he  saw,  by  the  time  that 
he  arrived  at  Madrid  impatience  to  find  himself  once 
more  at  home  was  mastering  him. 

"  I  wanted  to  set  off  to  you  by  post,"  he  wrote  to 
the  Duchess,  only  three  hours  after  his  arrival,  "  and 
should  have  been  with  you,  in  that  case,  in  seven  days. 
It  was  to  cost  me  forty  pounds  ;  but  Tony  remonstrated, 
and  insisted  that  it  was  very  foolish,  when  I  might 
go  for  five  guineas,  and, — in  short,  he  prevailed." 

His  return  to  England  was  not  attended,  so  far  as 
the  impending  love  affair  was  concerned,  with  good 
fortune.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  indeed,  uncle  to  both 
cousins,  showed  himself  anxious  to  further  his  nephew's 
wishes,  but  his  brother  was  so  much  opposed  to  the 
match  that  he  ended  by  forbidding  the  lover  his  house. 

Lord  Edward  under  these  circumstances  displayed 
more  wisdom  than  might  have  been  anticipated.  Find- 
ing himself  unable,  whilst  remaining  at  home,  to  get  the 
better  of  his  disappointment,  and  no  doubt  unsettled 
and  restless,  he  decided,  though  not  relinquishing  the 
hope  of  ultimate  success,  to  absent  himself  from  England 
for  a  time  by  joining  his  regiment,  now  stationed  at 
New  Brunswick.  In  May,  1788,  therefore,  he  sailed 
for  America. 


CHAPTER   VI 

1788—1789 

Lord  Edward  in  New  Brunswick — Second  Love  Affair — Letters 
to  his  Mother — Irish  Affairs — The  Duke  of  Leinster — 
Lord  Edward  declines  to  seek  Promotion — Adventurous 
Expedition  —  Native  Tribes  —  Disappointment — Return 
Home. 

LORD  EDWARD  was  more  than  eighteen  months 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  It  was  his 
last  holiday  before  he  set  his  hand  in  earnest  to  the 
plough  and  threw  himself,  for  life  and  for  death,  into 
the  cause  to  which  his  few  remaining  years  were  to  be 
dedicated. 

Unknown  to  the  public  as  he  still  was,  except  as  a 
younger  brother  of  the  Duke  of  Leinster  and  an 
obscure  member  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  his  own 
letters  form  almost  the  sole  source  of  information 
we  possess  as  to  this  period  of  his  life.  There  are, 
fortunately,  a  greater  number  of  them  available  for 
this  purpose  than  at  most  other  stages  of  his  career, 
and  they  give  a  graphic  picture  of  the  manner  after 
which  his  life  was  passed  in  New  Brunswick. 

If  it  was  a  holiday  shadowed  by  present  disappoint- 
ment, it  was  not  unlightened  by  hope  ;    and  there  is 

74 


%iic  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffitscBeralo  75 

apparent,  besides,  throughout  the  time  of  his  absence 
from  home,  a  manly  and  spirited  determination  to  keep 
the  wolves  of  regret  at  bay,  and  to  set  himself  courage- 
ously to  face  the  future  and  whatever  it  might  have 
in  store  for  him. 

It  may  well  have  been  that  his  second  attachment 
was  of  a  deeper  nature  than  his  boyish  devotion  to 
Lady  Catherine  Meade  ;  but  it  is  no  less  clear  that 
he  steadily  refused  to  be  wholly  absorbed  by  it,  and 
that  he  had  ceased,  at  least  in  his  normal  condition,  to 
look  upon  love-making  as  the  sole  object  of  a  man's 
life.  Even  in  his  confidences  to  his  mother  a  new 
tone  is  perceptible  ;  and  the  dawn  is  apparent  of  that 
obstinate  determination  not  to  be  beaten  which  is  so 
essential  an  element  in  the  attitude  with  which  the 
leader  of  a  forlorn  hope  should  meet  the  chances  of 
life. 

"  I  love  Georgina  more  than  ever,"  he  tells  the 
Duchess,  at  a  date  when  his  absence  had  already  lasted 
some  months  ;  "  and  if  she  likes  me,  can  never 
change."  He  is  still  young  enough  to  believe  in  im- 
mutability, but  old  enough  by  this  time  to  make  it 
provisional  :  "...  I  shall  never,  I  think,  be  happy 
without  her  ;  neither  do  1  say  that  I  shall  be  absolutely 
unhappy."  And  again  :  "  As  long  as  there  is  the 
smallest  hope  of  my  being  happy  with  Georgina,  it 
is  not  possible  to  be  happy  with  any  one  else.  Dearest 
mother,  after  yourself,  I  think  she  is  the  most  perfect 
creature  on  earth." 

It  is  not  the  language  of  a  man  who  felt  that  life 


76  %\fc  ot  Xoro  Beware  tftt3(Beralo 

and  death  hung  in  the  balances.  It  was  well,  as  the 
event  proved,  that  it  was  not  so. 

He  had  not  been  without  other  causes  of  disturbance 
besides  the  uncertainty  attending  his  love-affairs.  To 
the  grief  he  always  felt  at  being  parted  from  his 
mother  there  had  been  added  in  this  instance  the 
additional  pain  resulting  from  the  consciousness  that 
she  had  felt  disapproval,  or  even  in  some  degree 
displeasure,  at  his  flight  from  England,  decided  upon 
without  her  sanction  and  unknown  to  her.  It  was 
only  in  the  month  of  August  that  she  withdrew  her 
disapprobation  of  the  step. 

His  letters  in  the  meantime  had,  however,  been 
as  full  and  confidential  as  ever.  "  Depend  upon  it, 
dearest  mother,"  he  assures  the  Duchess  in  the  first, 
written  only  three  days  after  his  arrival  at  Halifax, 
"  I  will  not  miss  an  opportunity  of  writing  to  you." 

The  town  was  filled  with  Irish  ;  the  brogue  was 
to  be  heard  to  perfection  ;  and  he  was  lodged  at  the 
house  of  a  countryman,  Mr.  Cornelius  O'Brien,  who 
himself  claimed  relationship  with  the  FitzGeralds. 

"  I  accept  the  relationship,"  added  Lord  Edward 
with  a  touch  of  humour,  "and  his  horse,  for  thirty 
miles  up  the  country." 

The  regiment  was  stationed  at  St.  Johns,  New 
Brunswick  ;  and  by  the  middle  of  July,  after  a  long 
and  fatiguing  journey,  he  had  joined  it.  As  usual, 
his  interest  in  the  new  forms  of  life  with  which  he 
had  become  acquainted  on  the  way  was  keen  ;  and 
he    describes    in    especial    a  day  during  which  he  had 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<3eralo  77 

been  obliged  to  delay  his  journey,  and  which  had  been 
passed  in  the  cabin  of  a  couple  of  aged  settlers,  with 
whose  history  he  had  evidently,  after  his  custom, 
become  fully  conversant  before  quitting  their  abode. 

"  It  was,"  he  says,  "  I  think,  as  odd  and  as  pleasant 
a  day  (in  its  way)  as  ever  I  passed.  .  .  .  Conceive, 
dearest  mother,  arriving  about  twelve  o'clock  in  a 
hot  day  at  a  little  cabin  upon  the  side  of  a  rapid 
river,  the  banks  all  covered  with  woods,  not  a  house 
in  sight,  and  there  finding  a  little,  old,  clean,  tidy 
woman  spinning,  with  an  old  man  of  the  same  appear- 
ance weeding  salad.  The  old  pair,  on  our  arrival, 
got  as  active  as  if  only  flve-and-twenty,  the  gentleman 
getting  wood  and  water,  the  lady  frying  bacon  and 
eggs,  both  talking  a  great  deal,  telling  their  story : 
how  they  had  been  there  thirty  years,  and  how  their 
children  were  settled,  and  when  either's  back  was 
turned  remarking  how  old  the  other  had  grown  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  all  kindness,  cheerfulness,  and 
love  to  each  other."  Then  he  goes  on  to  describe 
what  followed  :  the  spirits  of  the  old  couple  subsiding 
as  night  drew  on  ;  the  evening  passed  in  the  "  wild 
quietness  "  of  the  place  ;  himself,  Tony,  and  the  guide, 
together  with  their  hosts,  sitting  all  on  one  log  at 
the  cabin  door.  It  is  clear  that  the  charm  of  the 
woods  had  cast  its  spell  upon  the  guest.  "  My  dearest 
mother,  if  it  was  not  for  you,  I  believe  I  never 
should  go  home — at  least,  I  thought  so  at  that 
moment." 

That,  making  his  observations  upon   the  conditions 


78  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3<Beralo 

of  life  prevailing  in  a  comparatively  new  country,  he 
should  have  singled  out  for  special  commendation 
the  absence  of  class  distinctions,  is  worth  noting  as 
an  indication,  thus  early,  of  the  temper  of  mind  which 
readily  led  to  his  future  identification  with  the 
principles  of  the  revolution. 

"  The  equality  of  everybody  and  of  their  manner 
of  life,"  he  says,  "  I  like  very  much.  There  are  no 
gentlemen.  Everybody  is  on  a  footing,  provided  he 
works  and  wants  nothing.  Every  man  is  exactly 
what  he  can  make  himself,  or  has  made  himself  by 
industry.  ...  I  own,"  reverting  to  more  personal 
matters,  "  I  often  think  how  happy  I  could  be  with 
Georgina  in  some  of  the  spots  I  see  ;  and  envied  every 
young  farmer  I  met,  whom  I  saw  sitting  down  with 
a  young  wife,  whom  he  was  going  to  work  to 
maintain." 

He  kept  his  promise  and  proved  a  good  corre- 
spondent, Tony,  in  whose  charge  the  Duchess  had 
apparently  placed  the  matter,  being  always  at  hand 
to  remind  his  master  of  his  duty  in  that  respect. 
"  There  has  not  passed  a  day  yet,"  Lord  Edward 
writes,  "  without  his  telling  me  I  had  best  write  now, 
or  I  should  go  out  and  forget  it."  Indeed,  the 
relations  between  master  and  servant  would  seem  to 
have  been  rather  those  of  friend  with  friend  than 
the  ordinary  recognition  of  loyal  service  well  rendered. 
"  His  black  face,"  said  Lord  Edward  again,  "  is  the 
only  thing  that  I  yet  feel  attached  to."  "  I  have 
nothing  more  to  say,"  he  writes  on  another  occasion, 


Xtfe  of  Xoro  JEowarb  ffit3(3eralo  79 

"except  that  the  faithful  Tony  enquires  after  you 
all,  and  seems  as  pleased  when  I  get  a  letter  as  if  it 
were  to  him  ;  he  always  puts  me  in  mind  to  write. 
I  have  found  he  has  one  fault  :  he  is  avaricious  ;  he 
begins  already  to  count  the  money  both  he  and  I  are 
to  save."  And  once  more,  when  he  has  manifestly 
been  suffering  from  a  bad  attack  of  home-sickness  : 
"  The  faithful  Tony  talks  of  you  a  great  deal ;  he 
and  I  have  long  conversations  about  you  all  every 
morning." 

Whether  or  not  Tony's  representations  were  neces- 
sary to  ensure  regularity  of  correspondence,  so  soon 
as  Lord  Edward  had  the  pen  in  his  hand  it  always 
proved  that  of  a  ready  writer.  No  one  was  ever  more 
keen  in  his  enjoyment  of  novelty,  nor  more  eager 
to  share  his  interests  with  those  from  whom  he  was 
absent. 

With  regard  to  the  panegyrics,  now  of  the  customs 
of  the  European  settlers  with  whom  he  was  brought 
into  contact,  now  of  the  manner  of  life  of  the  original 
inhabitants,  which  are  to  be  found  scattered  through 
his  letters,  it  may  likely  enough  be  true,  as  a  critic 
has  asserted,  that  the  attraction  he  professed  towards 
the  simpler  modes  of  existence  was,  in  part  at  least, 
the  result  of  a  fashion  introduced  by  Rousseau.  But 
to  be  infected  by  a  fashion  is  not  necessarily  to  be 
guilty  of  affectation,  nor  is  originality,  fortunately,  an 
essential  condition  of  sincerity.  It  must  also  be  borne 
in  mind  that  there  were,  in  his  case,  personal  arguments 
which  no  doubt  predisposed  him  to  regard  with  favour, 


So  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3<5eralo 

for  the  moment  at  least,  those  primitive  habits  which 
would  have  minimised  the  importance  of  money.  Had 
such  customs  prevailed  in  England,  as  he  observes 
on  one  occasion,  no  difficulty  would  have  been  raised 
as  to  his  marriage  ;  no  ridiculous  obstacles  would 
have  been  interposed  in  the  way  of  real  happiness  ; 
there  would  be  no  interest,  no  ambition,  no  "  devilish 
politics"  either!  "The  dear  Ciss  and  Mimi  " — his 
little  half-sisters — "  would  be  carrying  wood  and 
fetching  water,  while  Ladies  Lucy  and  Sophia  were 
cooking  or  drying  fish.  As  for  you,  dear  mother, 
you  would  be  smoking  your  pipe. 

By  the  month  of  September  he  had  received  the 
Duchess's  assurance  that  she  withdrew  her  disappro- 
bation of  the  step  he  had  taken  in  leaving  England. 

"  Dearest,  dearest  mother,"  he  writes,  in  the  first 
gladness  of  finding  the  unusual  cloud  between  them 
dispelled,  "  I  have  just  got  your  letter  from  sweet 
Frescati.  How  affectionate  and  reasonable  !  But  I 
was  sure  you  would  be  so  when  you  came  to  reflect. 
You  cannot  think  how  happy  you  have  made  me  ! 
Being  absent  from  you  was  unhappiness  enough, 
without  the  addition  of  your  thinking  it  unnecessary, 
and  being  a  little  angry.  I  own  it  went  to  my  heart 
to  feel  I  was  the  cause  of  so  much  misery  to  you, 
while  at  the  very  time,  too,  you  thought  the  step  I 
took  unnecessary."  After  which  he  recapitulates  his 
reasons,  and  proves  over  again  how  right  his  course  of 
action  had  been.  It  will  do  him  good  in  his  profession, 
and  will  prevent  him  from  being  wholly  taken  up  with 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfft3<3eralo  81 

his  unfortunate  love  affair.  But  nevertheless  "  being 
absent  from  you,  my  dear  mother,  is  very  terrible  at 
times." 

The  indulgence  of  visionary  speculations  as  to  the 
superior  felicities  of  savage  existence  did  not  prevent 
him  from  throwing  himself  with  all  his  old  ardour 
into  the  details  of  a  soldier's  life  ;  and  the  sternness 
of  his  views  concerning  military  duty  is  a  curious  and 
significant  trait  in  a  character  so  gentle  and  in  many 
respects  so  careless.  He  had  no  desire  to  be  a  toy 
soldier.  His  presence  with  his  regiment,  he  told  his 
mother,  was  his  duty  according  to  those  strict  rules  he 
required  from  others,  and  was  only  entering  into  the 
true  spirit  of  a  soldier,  "  without  which  spirit  a  military 
life  is,  and  must  be,  the  devil."  Besides,  suddenly 
descending  from  the  somewhat  high  position  he  had 
taken  up,  and  advancing  another  and  a  different  argu- 
ment by  which  to  reconcile  the  Duchess  to  his  absence, 
"I  am  always  disagreeable  when  I  am  in  love, and  perhaps 
you  would  all  have  grown  to  think  me  disagreeable." 

The  opinion  of  William  Cobbett,  at  that  time 
sergeant-major  of  the  54th,  in  which  he  was  serving, 
as  to  the  character  borne  by  Lord  Edward  in  his  own 
regiment  is  worth  quoting.  He  was,  Cobbett  told  Pitt, 
in  answer  to  some  questions  addressed  to  him  by  the 
minister,  "  a  most  humane  and  excellent  man,  and  the 
only  really  honest  officer  he  had  ever  known " — a 
testimony  which,  though  favourable  to  the  subject  of 
it,  one  may  hope  was  unduly  severe  upon  the  rest 
of  the  service. 

6 


82  xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt30eralo 

There  was  yet  another  reason,  besides  those  appealing 
to  the  soldier  and  the  lover,  which  made  Lord  Edward 
rejoice  to  be  absent  from  Ireland  at  the  present 
juncture.  "  Devilish  politics "  were  not  going  well 
there.  The  country  indeed  remained  quiet,  but  in 
Dublin  and  in  Parliament  certain  changes  had  taken 
place  which  would  have  rendered  his  position  at  home 
a  difficult  one. 

The  Duke  of  Rutland  had  been  succeeded  in  the 
Viceroyalty  by  Lord  Buckingham,  whose  possession 
of  a  Catholic  wife  would,  it  had  been  hoped,  serve  to 
propitiate  public  opinion.  But  neither  this  circum- 
stance, nor  the  conciliatory  measures  to  which  resort 
had  been  made,  had  availed  to  counterbalance  the 
personal  unpopularity  of  the  new  Lord  Lieutenant,  a 
man  of  haughty  temper  and  unprepossessing  manners, 
and  gifted  besides  with  a  talent  for  taking  offence. 
He  also  combined  with  the  "  expensive  genius  "  in  the 
use  of  public  money  of  which  Grattan  accused  him 
the  tendency  to  personal  parsimony — a  failing  peculiarly 
unfortunate  in  a  man  chosen  to  replace  a  predecessor 
distinguished  in  especial  by  his  reckless  generosity. 
The  great  Irish  families  placed  themselves  gradually 
in  opposition,  more  perhaps  to  the  Viceroy  personally 
than  to  his  administration  ;  and  on  the  occasion  of  his 
refusal  to  forward  an  address  from  the  Irish  Parliament 
desiring  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  exercise  the  Royal 
authority  during  the  illness  of  the  King,  a  vote  of 
censure  was  passed  upon  him  by  both  houses. 

The  opinion  entertained  with  regard  to  these  pro- 


Xife  ot  %otb  Eowaro  3Fit3(Beralfc  83 

ceedings  by  acute  observers  on  the  other  side  of  St. 
George's  Channel  is  expressed  by  Horace  Walpole, 
who  observed  in  a  letter  to  Lady  Ossory  written  in 
February,  1789,  that  he  should  not  be  surprised,  were 
Lord  Buckingham  to  be  supported  in  the  imperative 
mood  so  judiciously  adopted  at  the  commencement  of 
the  American  troubles,  if  the  Irish  were  to  weigh 
anchor  and  sail  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  of  Independence 
after  the  colonies  ;  so  that  the  son,  like  the  father — 
George  Grenville — would  have  the  honour  of  losing 
another  sovereignty.  "  If  all  this  should  happen," 
he  adds,  "pray  advertize  me  in  time,  madam,  that  I 
may  always  admire  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham." 

There  was  yet  another  and  a  more  personal  reason, 
besides  the  unsatisfactory  condition  of  public  affairs, 
which  led  Lord  Edward  to  congratulate  himself  that 
he  was,  for  the  moment,  debarred  from  taking  an 
active  part  in  Parliamentary  proceedings. 

The  FitzGerald  family,  united  as  they  were  in 
affection,  were  apt  to  take  different  sides  in  politics. 
Lady  Sarah  Napier,  giving  an  account  of  her  nephews 
some  months  later,  included  three  of  the  brotherhood 
— Lord  Edward  himself,  his  eldest  brother  the  Duke, 
and  Henry  FitzGerald — in  the  ranks  of  the  Opposition, 
Lord  Charles  and  Lord  Robert  being,  on  the  contrary, 
counted  amongst  Pitt's  supporters.  At  the  time  her 
description  was  written  she  was  doubtless  justified  in 
declaring  her  eldest  nephew  to  be  "stout,"  and  he  had 
even  taken  so  decided  a  part  in  opposition  to  the 
Viceroy    as   to    become    one    of    the    Commissioners 


84  Xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffit30eralo 

deputed  to  deliver  to  the  Prince  the  address  which 
Lord  Buckingham  had  refused  to  transmit.  But  at 
the  beginning  of  the  latter's  tenure  of  office  the  Duke 
of  Leinster  had  not  refused  his  support  to  the  new 
Lord  Lieutenant,  and  had  even  consented  to  accept 
at  his  hands  the  post  of  Master  of  the  Rolls.1  To 
the  temporary  apostasy  from  the  traditional  principles 
of  the  FitzGeralds  of  which  his  brother  had  been 
guilty  in  quitting  the  ranks  of  the  Opposition  Lord 
Edward  alluded  in  no  measured  terms. 

u  After  the  part  dear  Leinster  has  acted,"  he  says 
in  October  1788,  framing  his  censure  characteristically 
enough,  "  I  should  have  been  ashamed  to  show  my 
face  in  Ireland.  ...  I  certainly  this  winter  would  not 
have  supported  him,  though  I  would  not  oppose  him  : 
he  would  have  been  angry,  and  there  would  have 
been  a  coolness  which  would  have  vexed  me  very 
much.  I  have  had  many  quiet,  serious  hours  here 
to  think  about  what  he  has  done,  and  I  cannot 
reconcile  myself  to  it  by  any  argument.  His  conduct 
both  to  the  public  and  to  individuals  is  not  what 
it  ought  to  have  been.  In  short,  my  dear  mother, 
it  hurts  me  very  much,  though  I  do  all  I  can  to  get 
the  better  of  it.  I  know  it  is  weakness  and  folly  ; 
but  then  the  action  is  done — the  shame  is  incurred." 

Anxious   to    avoid    so  much    as  the   appearance    of 


1  The  Duke's  predecessor  in  this  office  had  been  that  Rigby  of  whom 
the  story  is  told  that,  consulted  in  jest  by  the  Heir-Apparent  as  to  his 
choice  of  a  wife,  he  had  made  answer  that  he  was  not  yet  drunk 
enough  to  give  advice  to  a  Prince  of  Wales  about  marrying. 


%ite  of  Xorb  Eowaro  jfit36eralo  85 

soliciting  a  favour  from  his  brother's  new  friends  on 
his  own  account,  he  adds  an  injunction  that  no  steps 
should  .be  taken  by  Mr.  Ogilvie  with  regard  to  his 
promotion.  He  was  determined  to  receive  nothing 
till  he  was  out  of  Parliament.  He  was  content  with 
his  present  position,  and  had  no  ambition  as  to  rank. 
"  The  feeling  of  shame  is  what  I  never  could  bear.  .  .  . 
And  pray  do  you  tell  Leinster  from  me,"  he  reiterates, 
cc  that  I  do  not  wish  to  purchase  at  present,  or  that 
he  should  do  anything  about  a  lieut-colonelcy."  And 
they  are  to  remember  how  obstinate  he  is  when  once 
he  has  made  up  his  mind. 

To  Mr.  Ogilvie  himself  he  wrote  in  the  same  spirit  : 
"  Leinster 's  conduct  is  too  foolish  and  shabby — I 
hate  thinking  of  it.  I  am  determined,  however,  it 
shall  not  vex  me  ;  but  that  I  may  be  totally  clear,  I 
must  beg  you  will  not  mention  anything  about  me  to 
him.  .  .  .  Tony  says,  if  Lord  Robert" — who  had 
thrown  in  his  lot  with  the  Government — "  goes  on  in 
the  way  he  is  doing,  he  will  soon  be  a  major.  I 
believe  Henry  and  I  are  the  only  two  honest  ones  in 
the  family." 

With  regard  to  any  advantage  to  accrue  to  himself 
from  his  brother's  change  of  front,  his  obstinacy 
remained  unabated.  But  he  was  induced  by  the 
remonstrances  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond  to  reconsider 
his  determination  to  withdraw  his  support  from  his 
brother  in  Parliament.  The  letter  in  which  he 
declared  himself  convinced  of  his  duty  in  this  respect 
to  the  man  to  whom  he  owed  his  seat  is  too  curious 


86  Xife  of  %oxb  £&wiatft  tftt3<Seralo 

an  example  of  the  Parliamentary  morality  of  the  day 
to  be  omitted  here. 

"  I  have  got  a  letter,"  he  tells  his  mother,  "  from 
Uncle  Richmond,  which  was  as  kind  as  possible  ; 
everything  he  does  only  makes  one  love  him  the  more. 
He  says  in  his  letter  that  as  Leinster  is  come  over 
completely  to  the  Government,  he  can  see  no  reason 
why  I  should  not  now  act  with  my  brother  and 
uncle.  In  my  answer  I  have  agreed  with  him,  and 
said  that  I  certainly  shall  ;  because,  upon  consideration, 
though  I  think  Leinster  wrong,  and  told  him  so 
beforehand,  yet  as  he  has  taken  that  part,  it  would  be 
wrong  not  to  support  him — we  being  his  members, 
and  brought  in  by  him  with  an  idea  that  he  might 
depend  upon  our  always  acting  with  him."  1 

That  a  man  of  Lord  Edward's  stamp,  and  holding 
his  pronounced  views,  should  have  been  able  to  per- 
suade himself  that  he  was  morally  bound  to  hold  his 
vote  at  the  service  of  the  man  by  whom  he  had  been 
returned  to  Parliament,  however  mistaken  he  might 
consider  him,  is  a  strange  illustration  of  the  prevailing 
code  of  political  honour.  But  it  likewise  affords  a 
striking  proof  that  he  was  in  no  way  eager  to  adopt  a 
line  of  his  own  or  to  vindicate  his  independence  ;  and 
his   conduct   on   this  occasion  lends   additional  weight 


1  There  is  abundant  evidence  that  a  member  of  Parliament  who  sat 
as  nominee  of  the  owner  of  a  borough  was  generally  considered  bound 
in  honour  to  support  his  patron's  policy  or  retire.  During  the  Union 
debates  upwards  of  sixty  such  members  had  to  retire  and  give  place 
to  those  who  would  vote  for  the  Union. 


Xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3<3eralt>  87 

to  the  reasons  which  afterwards  led  to  so  different 
a  course  of  action  on  his  part. 

To  reap  any  personal  advantage  from  his  submission 
was  a  wholly  different  matter  ;  and  he  reiterated  his 
determination  to  accept  nothing  from  the  Duke's 
new  friends  :  "I  am  determined  not  to  take  any- 
thing, lieut.-colonelcy  or  anything  else.  I  wish  my 
actions  not  to  be  biassed  by  any  such  motive  ;  but 
that  I  may  feel  I  am  only  acting  in  this  manner 
because  I  think  it  right.  ...  I  have  written  to  Uncle 
Richmond  to  this  same  purpose,  telling  how  I  meant 
to  act,  and  how  I  felt,  and  therefore  trust  he  will 
not  persist  in  trying  to  get  me  a  lieut.-colonelcy.  1 
am  content  as  I  am — I  am  not  ambitious  to  get  on. 
1  like  the  service  for  its  own  sake  ;  whether  major, 
lieut.-colonel,  or  general,  it  is  the  same  to  me. 
High  rank  in  it  I  do  not  aspire  to  ;  if  I  am  found  fit 
for  command,  I  shall  get  it  ;  if  I  am  not,  God  knows 
I  am  better  without  it.  The  sole  ambition  I  have  is 
to  be  deserving.  To  deserve  a  reward  is  to  me  far 
pleasanter  than  to  obtain  it.  I  am  afraid  you  will  all 
say  I  am  foolish  about  this  ;  but  as  it  is  a  folly  that 
hurts  nobody,  it  may  have  its  fling.  I  will  not, 
however,  trouble  you  any  more  about  all  this  hanged 
stuff,  for  I  am  tired  of  thinking  of  it." 

At  present  he  was  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  scene 
of  action,  nor  was  there  any  immediate  prospect  of 
his  return  to  Ireland.  Winter  had  set  in — the  winter 
of  1788-9 — and  his  attention  was,  so  far  as  his  military 
duties  admitted  of  it,  chiefly  devoted  to  skating.    There 


88  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3<3eralo 

were  hunting  parties  too,  and  marches  over  the  snow, 
involving  nights  spent  camping  out  in  the  woods, 
wrapped  in  a  blanket,  the  moon  shining  through 
the  branches,  the  snow  banked  up  around,  and  a 
fire  burning  in  the  centre  of  the  little  encampment — a 
mode  of  life  so  much  to  Lord  Edward's  taste  that 
he  doubted  whether  he  would  ever  again  be  able 
to  reconcile  himself  to  living  within  four  walls. 

In  England,  meanwhile,  the  question  of  his  pro- 
motion had  come  once  more  under  consideration.  The 
aspect  of  public  affairs  had  undergone  a  change  both 
there  and  in  Ireland.  His  brother's  brief  alliance 
with  the  Government,  although  news  of  it  had  not 
yet  reached  him,  was  already  dissolved,  and  the  Duke 
had  been  dismissed  from  his  office. 

With  the  passing  of  the  Regency  Bill  and  the 
accession  to  power  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  it  was 
confidently  expected  that  his  friends,  the  Whigs, 
would  displace  the  present  Government  ;  and  a  letter 
of  Fox's,  written  at  this  juncture  to  his  cousin  Henry 
FitzGerald,  gives  proof  of  his  intention  to  make  all 
use  of  the  means  which  would  be  placed  at  his 
disposal  to  forward,  in  accordance  with  the  frank  and 
open  fashion  of  the  day,  the  interests  of  his  family. 

After  expressing  the  satisfaction  he  would  feel  in 
acting  with  the  Duke  of  Leinster,  now  returned  to 
the  Whig  fold,  he  proceeded  to  assure  Lord  Henry 
of  his  good  offices  with  regard  to  those  members  of 
the  FitzGerald  family  who  had  remained  within  it. 

"  With    respect  to   you    and    Edward,"    he    wrote, 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit36eralo  89 

a  I  must  be  ungrateful  indeed  if  I  did  not  consider 
the  opportunity  of  showing  my  friendship  to  you 
two  as  one  of  the  pleasantest  circumstances  attending 
power.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Regency  will 
be  to  make  Edward  Lieut.-Colonel  of  the  Royal 
Irish  ;  and  if  a  scheme  which  is  in  agitation  takes 
place,  I  think  I  shall  have  an  opportunity  of  getting 
for  you,  too,  a  lift  in  your  profession." 

As  he  anticipated  for  himself  a  return  to  the 
Foreign  Office,  he  wished,  with  a  view  to  future 
arrangements,  to  learn  the  views  of  Lord  Edward  and 
his  brother  with  regard  to  employment  abroad.  As 
to  Lord  Robert,  whose  rapid  advancement,  it  will  be 
remembered,  had  been  prophesied  by  Tony,  in  con- 
sequence of  his  adherence  to  the  Tory  Government, 
he  would  have  to  wait  a  little,  but  might  be  assured 
that  his  prospects  should  not  suffer  owing  to  his 
cousin's  accession  to  office. 

The  King's  unexpected  recovery  put  an  end  for 
the  time  to  the  realisation  of  Fox's  benevolent  schemes, 
with  which  indeed  Lord  Edward  can  only  have  become 
acquainted  at  a  later  date. 

At  the  present  moment  he  was  occupied  with  other 
matters  than  even  military  advancement. 

In  February — his  cousin's  letter  bore  the  date  of 
the  ist  of  that  month — he  wrote  to  his  stepfather  to 
announce  a  projected  journey  to  Quebec,  to  be  under- 
taken in  the  company  of  a  brother-officer,  Tony,  and 
two  woodsmen. 

"  It  will  appear  strange  to  you,  or  any  people  in 


9o  Xife  of  Xoro  Bowaro  ffit3<Beralo 

England,"  he  wrote,  "  to  think  of  starting  in  February, 
with  four  feet  of  snow  on  the  ground,  to  march  through 
a  desert  wood  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles  ; 
but  it  is  nothing.  ...  It  will  be  a  charming  journey, 
I  think,  and  quite  new." 

It  was,  in  fact,  an  adventurous  undertaking, 
described  by  an  inhabitant  of  Quebec  as  both  arduous 
and  dangerous  ;  the  route,  lying,  as  it  did,  entirely 
through  uninhabited  woods,  morasses,  and  across 
mountains,  having  never  yet  been  attempted  by  the 
Indians  themselves.  To  Lord  Edward  an  enterprise 
recommended  by  its  novelty,  and  possibly  by  the 
risk  attaching  to  it,  was  naturally  alluring  ;  and  his 
love  troubles  and  political  regrets  were  alike  thrown 
into  the  background  by  the  prospect.  Writing  in 
excellent  spirits,  he  sends  the  comforting  message  to 
his  sisters  that  he  is  as  great  a  fool  as  ever,  and  fears 
that  his  folly  will  stick  to  him  all  the  days  of  his  life — 
he  did  not  guess  how  few  they  were  to  be — and  to 
his  mother  his  love  and  the  assurance  that  "  le  petit 
sauvage"  will  think  of  her  often  in  the  woods.  "  She 
has  a  rope  round  my  heart  that  gives  hard  tugs  at  it, 
and  it  is  all  I  can  do  not  to  give  way." 

The  journey  was  accomplished  successfully,  thirty 
days  being  taken  to  cover  a  distance  of  a  hundred  and 
seventy  miles.  Most  of  the  way  lay  through  woods 
up  to  that  time  considered  impassable  ;  it  was  only 
when  the  River  St.  Lawrence  had  been  crossed  that  the 
exploring  party  fell  in  with  some  Indians,  in  whose 
company  the  remainder  of  the  journey  was  made. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaco  ffit3(Beralo  91 

"They  were  very  kind  to  us,"  wrote  Lord  Edward, 
who,  with  his  singular  faculty  of  making  friends  with 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  had  evidently  entered 
upon  terms  of  good  fellowship  with  them  at  once,  "  and 
said  we  were  '  all  one  brother  ' — all  '  one  Indian.'  .  .  . 
You  would  have  laughed  to  have  seen  me  carrying 
an  old  squaw's  pack,  which  was  so  heavy  I  could  hardly 
waddle  under  it.  However,  I  was  well  paid  whenever 
we  stopped,  for  she  always  gave  me  the  best  bits,  and 
most  soup,  and  took  as  much  care  of  me  as  if  I  had 
been  her  own  son  ;  in  short,  I  was  quite  V enfant  cheri. 
We  were  quite  sorry  to  part  :  the  old  lady  and  gentle- 
man both  kissed  me  very  heartily." 

There  had  been  other  pleasures  on  the  journey 
besides  the  society  of  his  Indian  friends  :  the  luxury 
of  a  good  spruce  bed  before  the  fire  after  a  long  day's 
march,  or  a  moose  chase  on  a  clear  moonlight  night — 
to  be  thoroughly  enjoyed,  however,  only  so  long  as  it 
was  unsuccessful.  "  At  first  it  was  charming,  but  as 
soon  as  we  had  him  in  our  power  it  was  melancholy. 
However,  it  was  soon  over,  and  it  was  no  pain  to  him. 
If  it  were  not  for  this  last  part,  it  would  be  a  delightful 
amusement "  ;  and,  after  all — "  we  are  beasts,  dearest 
mother,  I  am  sorry  to  say  it " — in  the  enjoyment  of 
eating  the  victim,  regret  was  forgotten. 

All  had,  in  fact,  gone  well,  and  he  had  nothing  left 
to  wish  for,  except — the  old  refrain  is  repeated  in  his 
letter  to  his  mother — "  how  I  long  to  feel  all  your 
arms  about  my  neck  !  " 

He  had  expected  and  intended  to  be  at  home  some 


92  Xife  of  Xoro  Bowaro  jftt3<3eralo 

months  earlier  than  was  actually  the  case,  for  the 
temptation  of  making  a  further  exploration  by 
returning  to  England  via  the  Mississippi  and  New 
Orleans  proved  too  strong  to  be  resisted  ;  and  in 
company  with  an  Indian  chief  who  had  himself  paid 
a  visit  to  England,  he  carried  out  the  plan,  passing 
through  native  villages,  canoeing  down  rivers,  and 
dancing  with  Indian  ladies,  whose  manners  he  found 
particularly  to  his  taste.  At  Detroit,  it  is  true,  his 
spirits  were  a  little  shadowed  by  the  necessity  of 
parting  with  a  fellow-traveller — he  does  not  mention 
of  which  sex  ;  but,  remembering  that  les  -plus  courtes 
folies  sont  les  meilleures,  he  found  consolation  at  the 
same  place  in  his  adoption  into  the  Bear  Tribe  of  native 
Indians,  whose  chief,  after  a  fashion  that  has  found 
a  parallel  in  later  days,  formally  inducting  his  friend 
Lord  Edward  FitzGerald  into  the  tribe  as  one  of  its 
chiefs,  bestowed  upon  him  the  name  of  Eghnidal,  "  for 
which  I  hope  he  will  remember  me  as  long  as  he  lives." 

The  journey  was  not  one  to  be  accomplished 
quickly.  It  was  only  in  December  that  the  traveller 
reached  New  Orleans,  where  a  shock  awaited  him. 

Cut  off  from  communication  with  England  during 
his  wanderings,  he  had  received  no  news  from  home 
for  months  ;  and  when  at  last  letters  reached  him, 
they  conveyed  the  intelligence  of  an  event  which 
involved  the  final  downfall  of  the  hopes  which  had 
buoyed  him  up  throughout  his  voluntary  exile.  The 
girl  upon  whom  his  heart  had  been  set  had  married 
another  man. 


Xtfe  ot  SLoro  Bcwaro  3Fit30eralt>  93 

Writing  in  May  of  this  year,  his  aunt  Lady  Sarah 
Napier  gives  free  expression  to  her  own  indignation 
at  the  treatment  her  nephew  had  received.  While 
the  "  dear  spirited  boy  "  had  been  living  in  wild  woods 
to  pass  the  time  till  the  consent  of  her  parents  to 
his  marriage  with  the  cousin  he  adored  could  be 
obtained,  they  had  cruelly  married  her  to  Lord  Apsley 
(afterwards  Lord  Bathurst),  and  the  ungrateful  girl 
had  consented.  "  We  dread,"  adds  Lady  Sarah,  "  the 
effect  this  news  will  have  on  him." 

It  was  undoubtedly  a  blow,  sharp  and  severe.  Yet 
one  cannot  but  think,  reading  the  letters  written  by 
him  when  the  wound  was  still  fresh,  that  it  was 
scarcely  so  crushing  a  one  as  his  aunt  feared  or  as  his 
biographer — a  poet  and  something  of  a  courtier  too, 
and  writing  when  the  lady  was  still  alive — would 
have  us  believe.  That  he  felt  the  disappointment 
keenly  there  is  no  more  reason  to  doubt  than  that, 
had  his  love  been  true  to  him,  he  would  have  also 
remained  faithful.  But  his  language  was  neither  that 
of  a  broken-hearted  man,  nor  of  one  who  desired  to 
assume  that  attitude. 

Writing  to  his  brother,  he  acknowledges  the  letter 
which  had  brought  him  the  news  ;  and  using  the 
Spanish  language — a  task  which  no  man  labouring 
under  the  stress  of  overpowering  grief  would  have 
set  himself — he  declared  that  he  was  submitting  with 
patience   to  all    human  vicissitudes. 

In  a  second  letter  on  the  same  subject,  dated  two 
or  three  weeks  later,  a  strain  of  bitterness  mingled. 


94  %itc  of  %ovb  lEbwavb  3ftt3(3eralfc 

11 1  bore  all  the  accounts  of  Georglna  tolerably 
well.  I  must  say  with  Cardenis,  '  That  which  her 
beauty  has  built  up,  her  actions  have  destroyed.  By 
the  first  I  understood  her  to  be  an  angel  ;  by  the 
last  I  know  her  to  be  a  woman.'  But  this  is  enough 
of  this  disagreeable  subject." 

In  the  same  letter  he  sends  his  love  to  dear  Madame 

de ,  "  who,  upon  cool  consideration,  is  as  charming 

a  creature  as  is  in  the  world — in  fact,  she  is  sincere, 
which  is  a  quality  rather  rare." 

If  a  blow  had  been  inflicted  upon  his  faith  in 
human  nature  by  the  infidelity  of  his  cousin,  one 
cannot  but  believe,  judging  by  the  sequel,  that  it 
was  one  that  quickly  recovered.  It  might  have  been 
well  for  Lord  Edward  himself — well  also  for  the  cause 
to  which  he  was  to  devote  himself — had  his  confidence 
in  the  sincerity  of  human  kind  been  less. 

Thus  ended  Lord  Edward's  second  love  affair.  It 
is  said  that  another  dramatic  incident  came  near  to 
being  added  to  the  story.  On  his  arrival  in  London 
after  his  prolonged  absence  he  had  hurried  at  once 
to  his  mother's  house,  where  it  so  chanced  that  she 
was  that  evening  entertaining  her  niece,  Lady  Apsley, 
and  her  husband  at  dinner.  It  was  only  by  the 
recognition  of  Lord  Edward's  voice  outside  by  another 
cousin,  General  Fox,  and  by  his  prompt  interposition, 
that  the  discarded  lover  was  prevented  from  intro- 
ducing a  disconcerting  and  unexpected  element  into 
the  family  party. 


CHAPTER    VII 

1790 — 1792 

Lord  Edward  offered  Command  of  the  Cadiz  Expedition — 
Refuses  it  on  being  returned  to  Parliament — Decisive 
Entry  on  Politics — In  London — Charles  James  Fox — 
Dublin — Condition  of  Ireland — Whig  Club — Society  of 
United  Irishmen — Thomas  Paine  and  his  Friends — Lord 
Edward  in  Paris. 

THERE  is  something  strange  and  relentless,  to 
the  eyes  of  those  who  follow  the  course  of 
Lord  Edward's  history,  in  the  manner  in  which  his 
doom — the  doom  of  a  cause — hunted  him  down.  He 
had  not  sought  it.  In  character  and  temperament 
he  was  most  unlike  a  man  destined  to  be  the  chief 
actor  in  a  tragedy.  But  there  was  no  escape.  It 
drew  closer  and  closer,  like  what  in  truth  it  was, 
the  Angel  of  Death. 

Almost  immediately  upon  his  arrival  in  London  a 
proposal  was  made  to  him.  Had  the  plan  with 
which  it  was  concerned  been  carried  into  effect,  the 
whole  course  of  his  subsequent  career  might  have 
been  changed. 

He  was  still,  before  everything,  a  soldier.  His 
political   views,   pronounced  as  they  were,  had  as  yet 

95 


96  Xife  of  Xorb  Eowaro  ffit3<Seralo 

taken  no  practical  or  revolutionary  shape.  He  was 
committed  to  no  course  of  action  from  which  he 
could  not,  in  honour,  have  withdrawn.  For  politics 
as  a  profession  it  has  been  shown  that  he  had  little 
liking  ;  while  his  recent  experience  of  the  difficulties 
in  which  he  was  liable  to  find  himself  at  any  moment 
involved  by  a  change  of  front  on  the  part  of  his 
brother  may  reasonably  have  inclined  him  to  regard 
with  additional  distaste  the  position  he  held  in  the 
House  as  the  Duke's  nominee.  Under  these  circum- 
stances the  Dissolution  occurring  in  the  spring  of 
the  year  which  saw  his  return  to  England  must 
have  been  peculiarly  welcome,  as  releasing  him  from 
the  necessity  of  once  more  taking  up  the  burden 
of  his  Parliamentary  duties.  He  came  home,  as  he 
imagined,  a  free  man,  neither  contemplating  nor 
desiring  the  continuance  of  a  political  career,  and  at 
liberty  to  devote  himself  for  the  future  to  the  profession 
he  loved — that  of  a  soldier.  It  was  while  labouring 
under  this  misapprehension  that  he  received  and 
accepted  an  offer  made  to  him  by  the  Government, 
through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond. 

Struck  by  the  good  use  to  which  his  nephew  had 
put  the  opportunities  of  observation  afforded  him  both 
during  his  tour  in  Spain  and  his  more  recent  visit  to 
the  Spanish  colonies,  the  Duke  had  invited  him  to 
meet  Pitt  and  Dundas,  with  the  result  of  an  offer 
both  of  brevet  promotion  and  of  the  command  of  an 
expedition  shortly  to  be  despatched  against  Cadiz. 

The    prospect  may  well   have    been    dazzling   to  a 


Xffe  of  %ovb  JEbwato  $it$<$evalb  97 

soldier  of  twenty-six.  The  proposal  was  one  after 
Lord  Edward's  own  heart,  and  he  closed  with  it 
without  hesitation  ;  the  understanding  being  that,  in 
return  for  the  honour  done  him  in  singling  him  out 
for  a  position  of  responsibility  and  importance,  he 
should  no  longer  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Opposition. 

In  this  arrangement  there  was  nothing  inconsistent 
with  the  determination  he  had  expressed  in  the 
preceding  year  to  accept  nothing,  at  that  time,  from 
the  party  in  power.  "  I  am  determined,"  he  had  then 
written,  "  to  have  nothing  ////  I  am  out  of  Parliament.''' 
He  was  now,  or  imagined  himself  to  be,  without  a  seat ; 
and  that  he  should  have  felt  no  difficulty  in  giving 
this  purely  negative  pledge  is  a  proof  of  the  firmness 
of  his  belief  that  he  had  finally  withdrawn  from  any 
active  participation  in  political  life.  This  being  the 
case,  he  would  doubtless  have  considered  it  idle  to 
allow  a  purposeless  parade  of  opinions  having  no 
bearing  upon  action  to  interfere  with  the  performance 
of  his  duty  as  a  soldier.  Had  he  been  permitted  to 
carry  into  effect  his  intention  of  retiring  from  Parlia- 
ment and  of  devoting  himself  to  his  profession,  the 
history  of  Ireland  might  have  lacked  one  of  its  most 
tragic  chapters.     But  Fate  had  ordered  it  otherwise. 

The  matter  was  considered  practically  settled.  The 
Duke  was  to  report  the  arrangement  which  had  been 
arrived  at  to  the  King,  of  whose  approval  and  sanction 
no  doubt  was  entertained.  An  unexpected  obstacle, 
however,   intervened,   and    put   an  abrupt  end  to  the 

7 


98  Xife  of  Xorb  Eowaro  jftt3<3evalo 

negotiations.  The  Duke  of  Leinster,  against  the 
expressed  wishes  of  his  mother,  had,  before  the  arrival 
of  Lord  Edward  in  England,  taken  the  step  of  re- 
turning his  brother  to  the  new  Parliament,  as  member 
for  the  county  of  Kildare.  He  was  not,  as  he  had 
conceived  himself  to  be,  released  from  the  trammels 
of  Parliamentary  obligations  ;  and  on  the  very  day 
following  his  interview  with  the  Duke  of  Richmond, 
he  was  made  acquainted  with  the  fact. 

It  must  have  been  a  bitter  disappointment — one  of 
those  to  which  life  was  accustoming  him,  and  which 
were  driving  him  more  and  more  in  a  single  direction. 
One  by  one,  outlet  after  outlet  for  energy  and  devotion 
was  becoming  blocked  ;  and  every  pathway  barred 
save  that  which  he  was  to  be  doomed  to  tread. 

The  course  pointed  out  by  honour,  under  these  new 
circumstances,  was  plain,  and  he  did  not  flinch  from 
following  it.  The  alternative  of  declining  the  seat  to 
which  his  brother  had  nominated  him  does  not  appear 
to  have  suggested  itself  to  his  mind  ;  and  since  he  was, 
though  against  his  will,  to  occupy  once  more  the 
position  of  a  member  of  Parliament,  it  was  impossible 
that  he  should  take  his  seat  there  as  a  supporter  of  the 
party  which  he  had  consistently  opposed.  In  vain  his 
uncle,  angered  at  the  frustration,  by  what  he  considered 
his  nephew's  obstinacy,  of  his  plans  on  his  behalf, 
warned  him  that  nothing  in  the  shape  of  promotion  or 
advancement  was  to  be  looked  for  by  a  man  who 
refused  his  vote  to  the  Government.  Lord  Edward 
withdrew,    without    delay    or    hesitation,    the    quasi 


Xlfe  ot  %or&  Efcwaro  tftt36eral&  99 

pledge  obtained  from  him  ;  relinquished  the  chance 
of  military  distinction  that  he  had  been  offered  ; 
and  resigned  himself  to  a  return  to  the  treadmill 
from  which  he  had  imagined  himself  to  be  released. 
On  a  former  occasion,  owing  to  a  mistaken  principle 
of  honour,  he  had  submitted  his  better  judgment 
to  the  representations  of  the  Duke  ;  but  on  the 
present  one,  not  the  less  because  to  have  yielded 
would  have  been  to  his  own  manifest  advantage,  and 
perhaps  strengthened  in  his  resolution  by  the  con- 
sciousness that  the  bribe  offered  was  the  one  of  all 
others  most  alluring  to  his  spirit  of  enterprise,  he 
remained  firm  in  his  determination.  The  die  was  cast, 
and  Lord  Edward,  from  the  ranks  of  the  soldiers, 
passed  finally  into  those  of  the  politicians. 

For  the  present,  however,  if  his  doom  was  gaining 
upon  him,  he  remained  unaware  of  it.  Men  do  not 
always  recognise  the  summons  of  their  destiny. 

When  the  new  Parliament  met  in  July,  the  majority 
of  the  Government  was  found  to  have  received  a 
slight  increase.  Grattan,  however,  with  Lord  Henry 
FitzGerald  as  his  colleague,  had  won  the  City  of 
Dublin  for  the  Opposition  ;  and  amongst  the  members 
now  returned  for  the  first  time  was  Arthur  O'Connor, 
nephew  to  Lord  Longueville,  who,  though  entering 
Parliament  as  a  supporter  of  the  Government,  became 
later  on  one  of  the  most  intimate  associates  of  Lord 
Edward,  and  a  prominent  member  of  the  national 
party. 


ioo  xtfe  of  Xoro  Bowaro  3ftt3<3eralo 

The  summer  session  was  short,  and  after  a  large 
sum  of  money  had  been  unanimously  voted  in  view 
of  the  war  in  which  Lord  Edward  had  hoped  to  bear 
a  leading  part,  Parliament  was  adjourned,  and  he  was 
at  liberty  to  return  to  London  ;  where,  in  the  company 
of  his  mother  and  sisters,  most  of  the  interval  was 
spent  until  the  reassembling  of  the  House  recalled 
him,  some  six  months  later,   to  Dublin. 

"  Once  I  get  home,"  he  had  promised  the  Duchess, 
"  you  shall  do  what  you  please  with  me."  There  was 
little  doubt  that  her  pleasure  would  be  to  keep  him 
at  her  side  ;  and  there  he  remained,  paying  her  his 
old  tender  attentions,  and  performing,  besides,  family 
duties  of  the  kind  indicated  in  a  letter  of  Walpole's, 
when,  mentioning  that  a  match  of  Miss  Ogilvie's — not 
more  than  fifteen  at  this  time — was  off,  he  adds  that 
her  brother,  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald,  had  carried 
her  dismissal  of  the  suitor,  and  "  did  not  deliver  it  in 
dulcet  words." 

Upon  the  episode  thus  concluded,  as  well  as  upon 
the  family  life  of  the  joint  menage  of  FitzGeralds  and 
Ogilvies,  light  is  thrown  by  a  letter  of  Lady  Sarah 
Napier's;  who,  writing  in  October,  1790,  relates  that 
her  sister  the  Duchess  of  Leinster,  being  at  Tunbridge 
with  her  family,  "  saw  Lord  Chichester  there,  a  most 
pleasing  young  man,  whom  all  the  misses  wanted  to 
catch  as  a  prize,  and  while  she  was  wondering  who 
the  lot  would  fall  on,  he  took  the  greatest  fancy 
to  her  little  girl  Cecilia  Ogilvie,  just  fifteen,  who 
went    out    only    now    and    then    as    a    favour.      He 


%ifc  of  %ovb  JEbwatb  tfit3<Beralfc  101 

talked  to  her  much,  sought  her  out  in  rides  and 
walks,  and  is  so  excessively  in  love  with  her  that  it 
would  be  like  enchantment,  if  it  was  not  certain  that 
she  is,  not  handsome,  but  one  of  the  most  bewitching 
little  creatures  ever  known."  Lord  Chichester's  father, 
Lord  Donegall,  himself  engaged  to  be  married  for  the 
third  time,  was  for  retarding  the  marriage,  alleging  as 
his  reason  that  better  settlements  would  be  made  at 
a  later  date.  "  It  is  to  be  hoped,"  Lady  Sarah  adds, 
evidently  sceptical  as  to  the  pretext,  "  Lord  Donegall 
won't  delay  it  long,  as  those  delays  are  foolish,  and  a 
little  hard  on  the  young  folks,  who  are  very  much 
in  love." 

The  Duchess's  gratification  at  an  arrangement  which 
would,  in  case  of  her  death,  secure  a  home  to  both 
her  younger  children,  had  been  great  ;  for  though 
the  little  Ogilvie  sisters  had  been  "  loved  most  exces- 
sively "  by  all  the  FitzGeralds,  their  mother  felt  a 
natural  pride,  so  Lady  Sarah  added,  "  in  not  liking 
to  have  them  run  the  risk  of  being  looked  on  as 
/^//-sisters."  l  Her  disappointment — reflected,  one 
may  believe,  in  the  bearing  of  Lord  Edward  to  which 
Walpole  makes  allusion — must  have  been  proportion- 
ately great  when,  either  owing  to  Lord  Donegall 's 
policy  of  delay  or  to  some  other  cause,  the  engage- 
ment came  to  an  end.  At  fifteen,  however,  it  can 
scarcely  have  been  a  very  serious  matter  to  the  person 
chiefly  concerned. 

Even  independently  of  the  presence  of  his  mother, 
1  Life  and  Letters  of  Lady  Sarah  Lennox,  Vol.  II.,  p.  78. 


io2  xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  fftt3<3eralo 

London  must  have  had  many  attractions  for  Lord 
Edward.  Whatever  might  be  the  case  in  Dublin, 
there  was  here  no  lack  of  congenial  society.  Charles 
James  Fox  was,  in  spite  of  the  fourteen  years  which 
divided  the  cousins  in  age,  his  intimate  friend.  It 
has  been  seen  how,  at  a  moment  when  his  own  return 
to  office  seemed  almost  assured,  the  latter  had  at  once 
prepared  to  give  practical  expression  to  his  affection. 
It  was  an  affection  which  lasted  to  the  end.  "  If 
you  see  my  dear,  dear  Edward,"  he  wrote  to  Henry 
FitzGerald  when  Lord  Edward  was  in  prison — when, 
indeed,  though  tidings  of  the  final  catastrophe  had 
not  yet  reached  England,  he  was  already  dead — 
"  I  need  not  desire  you  to  tell  him  that  I  love 
him  with  the  warmest  affection."  While  for  Lord 
Edward,  young  and  enthusiastic,  the  older  man, 
simple  and  unaffected  in  spite  of  his  great  intellectual 
powers,  must  have  possessed  singular  charm.  Unlike 
as  were  the  two  in  character,  they  were  not  with- 
out tastes  in  common.  Lord  Edward's  love  for  an 
open-air  life,  for  country  sights  and  sounds,  whether 
in  the  untrodden  forests  and  plains  of  the  West  or 
in  his  own  Irish  home,  is  everywhere  apparent  ;  and 
the  reply  of  his  great  cousin,  when  urged,  some  ten 
years  later,  to  take  a  London  house,  might  almost 
have  come  from  his  pen.  "  A  sweet  westerly  wind," 
wrote  Fox,  "  a  beautiful  sun,  all  the  thorns  and  elms 
just  budding,  and  the  nightingales  just  beginning  to 
sing,"  did  not  incline  him  to  listen  to  his  corre- 
spondent's  suggestion.     The   blackbirds   and  thrushes 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3Ftt3<3eralt>  103 

would  indeed,  he  added,  have  been  quite  sufficient  to 
have  refuted  any  arguments  in  favour  of  it. 

To  Lord  Edward's  Irish  nature  his  cousin's  gift  of 
eloquence  must  also  have  especially  appealed.  "  He 
seemed,"  said  Godwin,  a  witness  not  prone  to  enthu- 
siasm, "  to  come  as  an  orator  immediately  from  the 
forming  hand  of  Nature.  ...  It  was  by  sudden  flashes 
and  emanations  that  he  electrified  the  heart,  and  shot 
through  the  blood  of  his  hearers."  And  adding  to 
his  dazzling  talents  the  charm  of  manner,  the  gay 
and  reckless  temper,  for  which  he  was  distinguished, 
together  with  that  power  of  forgetting  the  future 
which  Madame  du  Deffand  described  when,  some 
years  earlier,  she  said,  "  II  ne  s'embarrasse  pas  du 
lendemain"  it  would  be  no  wonder  if  over  the  younger 
kinsman  on  whom  he  had  bestowed  his  affection  he 
should  have  exercised  irresistible  fascination. 

Nor  did  he  stand  alone.  It  was  a  period  of  unusual 
brilliancy  on  the  part  of  the  great  Whig  houses. 
A  few  years  earlier  the  Prince  of  Wales,  fallen  under 
the  influence  of  Fox,  had  been  unlearning,  at  Devon- 
shire House  and  other  such  places  of  resort,  the 
austere  and  rigid  lessons  of  his  secluded  boyhood, 
and  receiving  his  initiation  into  codes  of  politics  and 
morals  of  a  widely  different  nature  to  those  in  which 
he  had  been  instructed  during  that  time  of  strict  and 
careful  discipline.  Sheridan,  FitzPatrick,  Hare,  and 
the  rest  formed  a  brilliant  group  ;  and  Fox,  still 
forgetting   to-morrow,   was   its  presiding  spirit. 

At  these  houses,  open  as  a  matter  of  course  to  Fox's 


io4  %itc  of  %otb  Efcwarb  jfit3(3eralfc 

first  cousin,  Lord  Edward  must  have  enjoyed  ample 
opportunities  of  meeting  all  the  most  eminent  members 
of  the  party  to  which  he  had  always  been  united  by 
sympathy  and  conviction  ;  while  to  the  chances  of 
political  enlightenment  that  they  afforded,  would  be 
added,  there  and  elsewhere,  allurements  of  a  less  serious 
nature.  To  society,  unpolitical  as  well  as  political, 
he  possessed,  as  FitzGerald  and  as  Lennox,  a  passport, 
enjoying  the  privilege  of  free  admission  into  the  inner 
circle  of  that  eighteenth-century  London  which  is 
described  with  such  graphic  and  lifelike  fidelity  in 
the  memoirs  of  the   time. 

At  all  events,  and  from  whatever  causes,  it  is  clear 
that  the  interest  attaching  to  the  great  centre  of 
civilisation  and  social  life  was  appreciated  to  the  full 
by  "  le  petit  sauvage  "  who,  a  year  earlier,  had  been  so 
strongly  sensible  of  the  superiority  of  primitive  modes 
of  existence.  Possibly  he  felt  a  preference  for 
extremes  in  such  matters.  Or,  again,  it  may  be  that, 
intercourse  with  Indians  and  colonists  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic  having  had  time  to  lose  its 
novelty,  a  reaction  had  taken  place  in  favour  of 
other  forms  of  life.  Nor  must  the  fact  be  disguised 
that,  notwithstanding  the  recent  shipwreck  undergone 
by  his  affections,  it  is  to  be  inferred  from  the 
language  of  his  biographer  that  he  had  already 
contrived,  with  his  "  extreme  readiness  to  love,"  to 
supply,  in  some  sort,  the  blank  left  by  his  faithless 
cousin. 

"  When   I  am  not  happy,"  he  once  told  his  mother, 


Xife  ot  %ort>  JEowarfc  3Fit3<Beralfc>  105 

"  I  must  be  either  soldiering,  or  preparing  to  be  a 
soldier,  for  stay  quiet  I  believe  I  cannot.  Why  did 
you  give  me  such   a  head   or   such  a   heart  ?  " 

In  the  absence  of  occupation  of  a  military  nature, 
he  was  pretty  sure  to  have  taken  refuge,  if  only  to 
pass  the  time,  in  that  of  making  love  ;  and  the  fact 
that  the  opportunity  of  such  distraction  was  to  be 
found  for  the  moment  in  London  added  no  doubt 
materially  to  the  distaste  with  which,  recalled  to 
Dublin  by  the  opening  of  Parliament,  he  obeyed  the 
summons.  Life  in  Ireland,  under  the  circumstances, 
offered  few  advantages.  Nor  was  he  in  the  mood  to 
profit  by  such  alleviations  as  might  have  been  available. 

"Dublin,"  he  wrote  discontentedly,  "has  been  very 
lively  this  week,  and  promises  as  much  for  the  next ; 

but  I  think  it  is  all  the  same  thing — La  D and  La 

S ,  and  a  few  young  competitors  for  their  places. 

I  have  been  a  good  deal  with  these  two.  They  want 
to  console  me  for  London,  but  it  won't  do,  though  I 
own  they  are  very  pleasant." 

He  had  discovered  what  was  the  worst  thing  that 
could  be  said  of  a  Dublin  woman — namely,  that  she 
was  cold.  "  You  cannot  conceive  what  an  affront  it 
is  reckoned,"  he  tells  the  Duchess,  concluding  his 
letter,  however,  in  haste,  having  received  an  invitation 
from  the  lady  to  whom  he  had  unwittingly  offered  this 
supreme  insult,  but  who  he  now  trusts  is  preparing  to 
make  up  the  quarrel. 

The  year  1791  was  an  eventful  one,  so  far  as  Ireland 
was    concerned.     Already    the    previous    summer    had 


io6  %\tc  of  Xorb  Eowaro  jfit30eralo 

been  marked  by  the  foundation  of  the  Whig  Club, 
a  powerful  association  formed  with  the  object  of 
combining  together  the  Irish  upper  classes  for  the 
purpose  of  pushing  forward,  by  constitutional  methods, 
the  reform  of  Parliament  and  the  maintenance  of 
the  constitution.  The  Duke  of  Leinster,  returned 
to  his  first  political  faith,  was  amongst  the  original 
members  of  the  Club,  together  with  various  other  men 
of  moderation  and  weight,  possessing  large  stakes  in 
the  country.  The  formation  of  an  association  of  the 
kind  was  doubtless  a  significant  fact.  But  others 
more  important  still  had  followed.  French  ideas  were 
daily  gaining  ground  ;  and  even  in  sections  of  society 
uninfected  by  them  the  agitation  for  a  reform  in 
the  national  representation  and  for  Catholic  emancipa- 
tion was  assuming  formidable  dimensions.  Dissension 
had  broken  out  in  the  Catholic  Committee,  and  the 
secession  of  above  sixty  of  the  members  of  most 
weight  in  point  of  position  had  left  the  management 
of  that  body,  hitherto  strangely  moderate  in  its 
demands,  in  the  hands  of  the  more  advanced  and 
democratic  section,  which  had  plainly  the  sympathy 
of  the  country  enlisted  on  its  side. 

It  was,  however,  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  1 791 
that  the  most  far-reaching  and  important  development 
by  which  the  agitation  had  been  marked  took  place, 
in  the  formation  of  the  Society  of  the  United  Irishmen. 
In  the  foundation  of  this  body  Wolfe  Tone,  then 
emerging  into  notoriety,  took  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant share. 


Photo,  by  Geoghehan. 
Death  Mask  of  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone. 


page  107. 


%ifc  of  %oro  Eowato  3Fit30eralo  107 

Born  in  1763,  he  had  been  educated  at  Trinity 
College  and  called  to  the  Bar.  He  had  at  this  time 
been  for  some  months  making  himself  a  name  in  the 
field  of  Irish  politics  by  means  of  his  pamphlets  on 
questions  of  the  day  ;  and  had  been  for  a  short  period 
a  member  of  the  Whig  Club,  quitting,  however,  that 
association  on  becoming  convinced  that  in  separation 
alone  lay  any  hope  for  the  future  of  the  country. 
A  Protestant  himself,  it  was  his  constant  endeavour 
to  bring  the  Catholic  Committee — of  which  he  became 
Assistant  Secretary — into  touch  with  the  Ulster  re- 
formers. 

He  has  himself  left  upon  record  both  the  general 
aim  he  set  before  him  and  the  means  by  which  he 
hoped  to  reach  it.  "  To  subvert  the  tyranny  of  our 
execrable  Government,"  he  wrote,  "  to  break  the 
connection  with  England,  the  never-failing  source  of 
our  political  evils,  and  to  assert  the  independence  of 
my  country — these  were  my  objects.  To  unite  the 
whole  people  of  Ireland,  to  abolish  the  memory  of 
our  past  dissensions,  and  to  substitute  the  common 
name  of  Irishmen  in  place  of  the  denomination  of 
Protestant,  Catholic,  and  Dissenter — these  were  my 
means." 

Notwithstanding,  however,  the  extreme  nature  of 
the  views  he  personally  entertained,  the  avowed  object 
of  the  society  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  chief 
founders  went  no  further,  at  least  at  first,  than  the 
obtaining  of  an  equal  representation  of  all  the  Irish 
people,  independently  of  the  religion  they  professed  ; 


108  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<5eralo 

and  the  combination,  for  that  purpose,  of  all  faiths 
and  creeds.  The  terms  of  the  oath  administered,  even 
when  it  had  been  altered,  at  a  later  period,  to  suit 
the  exigencies  of  the  situation,  were  indeed  curiously 
temperate. 

a  I  do  voluntarily  declare,"  so  the  formula  be- 
gan, "  that  I  will  persevere  in  endeavouring  to  form 
a  brotherhood  of  affection  among  Irishmen  of  every 
religious  persuasion,"  the  object  to  be  pursued  being 
an  equal  representation,  and  the  further  pledge  being 
added  that  no  evidence  should  be  borne  by  members 
of  the  society  against  their  comrades  with  regard  to 
any  act  performed  in  the  spirit  of  the  obligation 
incurred. 

However  moderate  might  be  its  professed  objects, 
the  formation  of  a  society  banded  together  for  the 
purpose  of  abolishing  religious  animosities  and  uniting 
Catholics  and  Protestants  for  the  vindication  of  their 
common  rights  marked  an  important  epoch  in  Irish 
history.  The  astounding  rapidity  with  which  the 
association  spread  proved  that  the  country  was  ripe 
for  it. 

On  Lord  Edward's  career  the  new  society  had  a 
most  important  bearing,  although,  so  far  from  being 
in  any  practical  manner  as  yet  implicated  in  the 
movement  of  which  it  was  the  outcome  and  result, 
he  appears  to  have  been  barely  acquainted  with  the 
man  who  had  been  its  first  leader.  Wolfe  Tone, 
who  was  compelled  to  leave  Ireland  in  1795,  before 
the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion  for  which  he,  more 


Xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3Flt3<5eralo  109 

than  any  other  conspirator,  had  paved  the  way,  though 
mentioning  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald  with  a  cordial 
and  generous  appreciation  bordering  on  enthusiasm, 
explicitly  states  in  his  autobiography  that  he  knew  him 
but  very  little. 

It  would,  in  fact,  seem  that  even  at  this  com- 
paratively late  date,  and  at  a  time  when  the  whole 
of  the  country,  in  a  ferment  around  him,  was  presenting 
an  object-lesson  in  the  most  efficacious  methods  of 
breeding  rebels,  Lord  Edward's  revolutionary  views, 
like  those  of  so  many  of  the  English  Whigs  with  whom 
he  consorted,  were  mainly  confined  to  the  region  of 
abstract  ideas.  In  point  of  practice,  he  continued  to 
content  himself  with  a  consistent  adherence  in  Parlia- 
ment to  the  popular  side.  Yet,  nevertheless,  his 
political  education  was  not  standing  still,  and  the  way 
was  doubtless  being  prepared  for  future  developments 
in  the  sphere  of  action. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  his  name  occurs — some- 
what incongruously  amongst  the  others  which  make 
up  the  list — mentioned  by  Mr.  Rickman,  friend, 
host,  and  disciple  of  Thomas  Paine,  as  one  of  those 
visitors  accustomed  to  seek  the  society  of  his  guest. 

Paine  himself,  just  come  into  additional  notoriety 
by  the  publication  of  his  celebrated  treatise  on  the 
"Rights  of  Man,"  was  a  teacher  eminently  qualified 
to  point  out  to  a  neophyte  the  connection  between 
revolution  as  a  theoretical  principle  and  as  a  practical 
force ;  while  his  lessons  would  carry  the  greater  weight 
as   coming    from    a   man    who    was   a   sharer    at   the 


no  xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt3(3eralo 

moment,  by  reason  of  the  doctrine  he  had  proclaimed, 
in  the  enthusiasm  evoked  by  the  progress  of  French 
affairs,  and  to  whom  belonged  some  of  the  glamour 
appertaining  to  a  popular  idol. 

That  Paine's  own  estimate  of  the  influence  exercised 
by  his  works  was  not  distinguished  by  modesty  is 
shown  by  an  entry  in  the  diary  of  Wolfe  Tone 
some  six  years  later,  in  which  a  conversation  with  the 
philosopher  is  recorded.  It  is  there  described  how, 
mention  having  been  made  of  the  shattered  condition 
of  Burke's  mind  consequent  upon  the  death  of  his 
only  son,  Paine  replied,  with  conceit  almost  amounting 
to  fatuity,  that  it  had  been  in  fact  the  publication 
of  the  "  Rights  of  Man  "  which  had  broken  the  heart 
of  the  great  statesman,  the  death  of  his  son  having 
done  no  more  than  develop  the  chagrin  which  had 
preyed  upon  him  since  the  appearance  of  that  work. 

If,  however,  the  philosopher  was  "  vain  beyond  all 
belief,"  it  could  not  be  denied  that  he  had  excuses 
for  vanity.  The  wild  and  extravagant  admiration 
excited  in  some  quarters  by  his  performance  might 
well,  apart  from  its  intrinsic  merits,  have  afforded 
some  justification  for  the  excessive  value  set  upon  it 
by  the  writer. 

"  Hey  for  the  New  Jerusalem — the  Millennium  ! 
wrote,  for  example,  the  dramatist  Holcroft,  upon  the 
appearance  of  the  book,  in  almost  incoherent  excitement 
and  surely  not  without  some  confusion  of  ideas — 
"  and  peace  and  beatitude  be  unto  the  soul  of 
Thomas  Paine." 


Xife  of  Xoiro  Bowavo  Jftt3<3etal5  m 

Abroad,  too,  the  appreciation  of  the  production 
was  great ;  and  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Stanhope — whose 
own  admiration  was  modified  by  annoyance  at  the 
maladresse  with  which  the  author,  by  associating  the 
anticipated  fall  of  the  British  constitution  with  the 
success  of  the  Revolution  in  France,  had  alienated 
English  sympathy — the  Comte  Francais  de  Nantes 
wrote  that  Paine's  work  had  something  "  cT original  et 
de  sauvage  comme  les  forets  americainesT 

Apart  from  the  interest  attaching  to  a  man  whose 
reputation  was  so  widely  spread,  there  was  doubtless 
much  in  the  society  which  gathered  around  him  to 
attract  one  to  whom  it  was  comparatively  new. 

William  Godwin,  the  pedantic  author  of  "  Political 
Justice,"  had,  as  well  as  Holcroft,  enjoyed  the  privilege 
of  reading  Paine's  great  work  before  it  was  given 
to  the  public,  and  both  men,  each  eminent  in  the 
world  to  which  they  belonged,  would  have  been 
amongst  the  select  spirits  with  whom  Lord  Edward 
was  brought  into  association  at  Mr.  Rickman's 
house.  Amongst  others  of  its  frequenters  are  men- 
tioned Home  Tooke,  another  professor  of  advanced 
ideas,  the  bitterness  of  whose  disappointment  at  his 
exclusion  from  active  political  life,  owing  to  the  fact 
of  his  being  a  clerk  in  holy  orders,  had  transformed 
him  into  an  "  incarnation  of  envy,"  constantly  occupied 
in  defaming  the  foremost  men  of  the  day  ;  Romney, 
the  painter  ;  and  Mary  Wollstonecraft,  afterwards 
Godwin's  wife,  at  present  engaged  upon  her  work 
relating   to    the    "  Rights   of  Women,"    and    not  yet 


ii2  %\fc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3(Beralo 

occupying  the  position  of  governess  to  that  daughter 
of  Lord  Kingston's  who  became  the  heroine  of  the 
tragedy  in  which,  through  the  vengeance  of  her 
father,  her  lover  lost  his  life. 

Mr.  Rickman's  house  must,  in  fact,  have  been  at 
the  moment  a  favourite  place  of  resort  for  all  who 
were  in  sympathy  with  the  more  extreme  revolutionary 
opinions,  moral,  social,  and  political  ;  and  from  those 
to  be  met  there  Lord  Edward  was  doubtless  learning 
to  apply  to  practical  purposes  the  abstract  theories 
of  Whig  politicians.  But,  drawn  thither  as  he  might 
be  by  a  like  interest,  he  can,  by  birth,  training,  and 
character,  have  had  little  in  common  with  the  group 
of  clever  and  middle-class  Bohemians  of  whom  the 
circle  was  plainly  made  up.  Their  company  would 
indeed  have  had  for  him  the  charm  of  novelty  ;  but 
it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  it  offered  other  or  more 
intrinsic  attractions  to  a  man  of  his  tastes,  or  that 
among  the  needy  literary  men,  the  artists,  and  the 
more  or  less  genuine  political  fanatics  who  sought 
Paine's  society,  he  may  not  have  felt  himself  a  trifle 
out  of  place.  Community  of  principles,  like  mis- 
fortune, brings  together  strange  bed-fellows.  Winning 
though  Lord  Edward  was,  he  possessed  neither 
brilliant  talents  nor  deep  intellectual  gifts.  So  far 
as  negative  evidence  may  be  accepted  as  proof,  he 
rarely  opened  a  book  save  for  the  purposes  of 
military  education,  while  for  any  indication  of  artistic 
taste  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  to  the  days  of 
Aubigny,   and   to  that  "  very  pretty    survey"    of   the 


%ifc  of  Xovo  Bowaro  jfit3<3evalb  113 

country  round  the  Garonne,  of  which  the  fields, 
bordered  with  colour,  and  the  trees,  delineated  with 
Indian  ink,  were  regarded  by  the  draughtsman  with 
such  pardonable  pride.  Of  learned  ladies  too — from 
which  class  one  would  imagine  that  Mr.  Paine's 
feminine  disciples  were  chiefly  recruited — he  had  so 
great  a  dread  that  he  is  said  to  have  declined  more 
than  once  the  proffered  opportunity  of  meeting 
Madame  de  Genlis,  at  this  time  on  a  visit  to  England, 
and  thus  to  have  deferred  to  a  later  date  the  inaugura- 
tion of  his  acquaintance  with  her  foster-daughter,  his 
own  future   wife. 

In  matters  of  religion  Lord  Edward  must  have 
stood  no  less  apart  from  the  group  of  arrogant  and 
aggressive  sceptics  into  whose  company  circumstances 
had  thrown  him  ;  since  he  remained  to  the  last, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  his  friend  Valentine 
Lawless,  afterwards  Lord  Cloncurry,  a  Christian,  devout 
and  sincere,  in  spite  of  the  efforts,  repeated  and 
persevering,  which  were  made  to  shake  his  convictions. 
Nor  was  the  son  of  the  Duchess  of  Leinster  likely 
to  have  found  himself  more  in  accord  on  social 
than  on  religious  questions  with  this  little  knot  of 
thinkers    and  writers — adventurers  in  doubtful  paths. 

Nevertheless,  uncongenial  as  they  might  be  in 
many  ways,  association  with  the  men  who  formed 
Thomas  Paine's  clientele  in  London  was  likely  to 
have  had  too  material  an  influence  in  the  ripening  of 
Lord  Edward's  political  convictions  to  make  it  irrelevant 
to  dwell  upon  them  in  detail  here  ;    while  for   Paine 

8 


n4         Xtfe  of  Xoro  Sowaro  tfit3<5eralo 

himself  his  admiration  was  so  genuine,  and  apparently 
so  blind,  as  to  cause  him  to  declare  that  there  was 
attaching  to  the  philosopher  a  simplicity  of  manner, 
a  goodness  of  heart,  and  a  strength  of  mind,  which 
he  never  before  had  known  a  man  to  possess. 

For  some  part,  at  least,  of  the  year  1791  master 
and  disciple  must  have  been  parted,  since  Paine  is 
said  to  have  been  compelled,  in  order  to  elude  the 
clutches  of  the  bailiffs,  to  seek  some  place  of  conceal- 
ment known  only  to  Home  Tooke  and  to  his  printer. 
If  this  account  of  the  straits  to  which  an  ungrateful 
public  permitted  the  popular  author  to  be  reduced 
is  to  be  credited,  it  must  have  been  all  the  more 
gratifying  when,  quitting  England  in  September  of 
the  following  year,  in  consequence  of  the  prosecution 
instituted  by  Government  on  the  publication  of  the 
second  part  of  the  "Rights  of  Man,"  he  found  himself 
received  on  his  arrival  at  Calais  with  a  royal  salute, 
entertained  at  a  public  dinner,  and  finally  returned 
by  that  town  as  deputy  to  the  Assembly. 

A  few  months  later  Lord  Edward  was  once  more, 
under  changed  circumstances,  under  the  same  roof 
as  his  political  oracle  in  Paris,  the  consequences  being 
this  time  more  serious,  both  to  himself  and  to  Ireland, 
than  those  which  had  attended  their  former  intercourse. 

It  was  on  the  occasion  of  this  visit  to  Paris  that 
two  events,  each  productive  of  important  results,  took 
place.  He  was  cashiered  and  dismissed  from  the 
army.     He  also  became  acquainted  with  Pamela. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

Pamela — Her  Birth  and  Origin — Introduced  into  the  Orleans 
Schoolroom — Early  Training — Madame  de  Genlis  and 
the  Orleans  Family — Visit  to  England — Southey  on 
Pamela — Sheridan  said  to  be  engaged  to  Pamela — 
Departure  for  France. 

WHO  was  Pamela  ?  It  was  a  question  often 
asked  during  her  lifetime,  and  which  has 
not  unfrequently  been  repeated  since  she  has  gone  to 
a  place  where  birth  and  parentage  are  of  comparatively- 
small  moment.  The  interest  that  has  been  felt  in 
the  matter  has  been  indeed  altogether  incommensurate 
with  its  importance.  But  it  is  not  uncommon  for  a 
work  to  be  the  more  successful  by  reason  of  its 
anonymity,  and  to  the  mystery  which  veiled  her 
origin  has  been  doubtless  due  part  at  least  of  the 
curiosity  testified  for  the  last  hundred  years  with 
regard  to  Madame  de  Genlis's  adopted  daughter ; 
the  touch  of  romance  belonging  to  her  early  history, 
her  beauty,  and  the  tragic  circumstances  connected 
with  her  marriage  and  widowhood  investing  her  with 
an  interest  scarcely  justified  by  what  is  known  of 
her  personality. 

The  theory  which  has  found  most  favour,  and  which, 
though  discredited  alike  by  facts  comparatively  recently 

"5 


n6         Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaco  jftt3<3eralo 

come  to  light  and  by  the  distinct  disclaimers  of  the 
persons  chiefly  concerned,  still  widely  prevails  among 
those  who  have  in  any  way  interested  themselves  in 
the  matter,  would  make  her  the  daughter  of  Egalite^ 
Due  d'Orleans,  by  Madame  de  Genlis,  his  children's 
governess — a  lady  in  whose  person  qualities  commonly 
supposed  to  be  antagonistic  present  a  combination 
which,  other  alleged  facts  of  her  history  taken  into 
account,  has  not  been  considered  such  as  necessarily 
to  give  the  lie  to  the   surmise. 

In  support  of  this  hypothesis  the  supposed  likeness 
of  Pamela  to  the  Orleans  family  has  been  cited, 
together  with  the  fact  of  the  fortune  settled  upon 
her  by  her  reputed  father.  It  should  be  remembered, 
however,  with  regard  to  this  last  piece  of  evidence, 
that,  according  to  Madame  de  Genlis' s  own  account  of 
the  matter,  this  fortune  was  no  free  gift  on  the  part 
of  the  Duke,  but  was  provided  by  the  commutation 
of  monies  due  to  herself,  and  would  therefore  afford 
no  proof  of  the  recognition  on  his  part  of  paternal 
obligations. 

To  set  against  the  arguments,  such  as  they  are, 
based  upon  these  circumstances,  we  have  Madame  de 
Genlis's  distinct  denial,  made  in  later  years  in  the 
presence  of  Pamela's  daughter  ;  the  equally  explicit 
contradiction  of  the  Orleans,  their  conduct  on  this 
occasion  contrasting  with  the  admission  of  the  claims 
of  kinship  in  another  case  ;  and  the  disbelief  in  the 
story  said  to  have  been  entertained  by  the  FitzGerald 
family  themselves. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowavo  jfit3<3enilo  117 

The  story  told  by  her  adopted  mother  has  also 
received  the  following  curious  corroboration  in  more 
recent  years,  through  the  enquiries  set  on  foot  by 
Mr.  James  Fitzgerald,  magistrate  in  the  island  of 
Fogo,  Newfoundland,  the  place,  according  to  Madame 
de  Genlis,  of  Pamela's  birth. 

In  the  marriage  contract  between  the  latter  and 
Lord  Edward  FitzGerald,  the  bride  is  described  as 
"  Citoienne  Anne  Caroline  Stephanie  Sims,  native  de 
Fogo,  dans  l'isle  de  Terre-neuve  ;  fille  de  Guillaume 
de  Brixey  et  de  Mary  Sims." 1  This  account  of  her 
birth  and  parentage  has  been  very  generally  attributed 
to  the  inventive  powers  of  her  guardian,  but  Mr. 
Fitzgerald  was  informed  by  an  inhabitant  of  Fogo 
that  a  daughter  of  his  grandfather's,  Mary  Sims,  had 
in  fact  sailed  for  Bristol  at  a  date  corresponding  with 
that  of  Pamela's  birth,  in  a  vessel  commanded  by 
a  Frenchman  named  Brixey,  taking  with  her  her 
infant  daughter  Nancy.  Mother  and  child  had  dis- 
appeared, to  be  heard  of  no  more  till  the  appearance 
of  Moore's  Life  of  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald  had 
seemed  to  furnish  a  clue  to  the  subsequent  history 
of  little  Nancy  Sims. 

Except  with  regard  to  the  name  of  the  father — 
whom  Madame  de  Genlis,  though  not  in  the  marriage 
register,  preferred  to  describe  as  an  Englishman  of 
good  birth  of  the  name  of  Seymour — this  story  tallies 
well  enough  with  her  account  of  the  matter,  to  which 

1  The  Tournay  register,  probably  through  carelessness,  gives  the 
father's  name  as  Berkley,  and  London  as  birthplace. 


1x8  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfttsCBeralo 

independent  corroboration  is  also  afforded  by  an  entry 
in  Southey's  Commonplace  Book,  where  he  gives  the 
result  of  certain  enquiries  he  had  himself  instituted 
at  Christchurch,  the  place  from  which  the  child  had 
been  despatched  to  France,  no  later  than  August,  1797 
— a  date  at  which  the  incident  would  still  have  been 
fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  little 
country  town. 

A  woman  of  Bristol,  he  was  informed — it  will  be 
remembered  that  the  destination  of  Mary  Sims,  on 
leaving  Fogo,  had  been  Bristol — of  the  name  of  Sims 
had  resided  at  Christchurch  with  an  only  daughter, 
a  natural  child  of  exceeding  beauty  and  of  about  four 
or  five  years  of  age ;  of  which  child,  in  consideration 
of  a  small  yearly  payment,  the  mother  had  consented 
to  relinquish  the  possession,  allowing  her  to  be  sent 
to  France,  to  serve  as  companion  to  the  daughter  of 
the  Due  d'Orleans.  The  affair,  it  further  appears 
from  a  letter  of  Southey's  to  Miss  Bowles,  was 
negotiated  by  a  clergyman  of  the  same  name  as  his 
correspondent. 

Thus,  weighing  all  available  evidence,  it  would  seem 
that  the  story  by  which  royal  blood  was  conferred 
upon  Madame  de  Genlis's  protegee  must  be  dismissed 
as,  to  say  the  least,  improbable  ;  and  that  it  is  likely 
that  in  this  instance  her  guardian  had  for  once  adhered 
to  the  approximate  truth. 

It  might  have  been  well  for  little  Nancy  Sims  had 
she  been  permitted  to  remain  in  the  sleepy  English 
country    town,    with    its   grey   old    minster,    and    the 


%ifc  of  %ovo  Ebwarfc  tfit36eral&  119 

broad,  green  meadows  through  which  the  River  Avon 
passes  to  the  sea  ;  but  there  is  no  indication  that  she 
ever  again  revisited  her  early  home. 

In  her  capacity  of  governess  Madame  de  Genlis 
had  conceived  the  idea  of  accelerating  the  acquisition 
by  her  pupils  of  the  English  language  by  the  intro- 
duction of  an  English  child  into  the  Orleans  schoolroom. 
Having  gained  the  consent  of  the  Duke  to  her 
project,  she  commissioned  Mr.  Forth,  ex-Secretary  to 
the  British  Ambassador  at  Paris,  to  select,  during  a 
visit  to  England,  a  little  girl  suitable  to  her  purpose. 
It  was  upon  the  daughter  of  Mary  Sims  that  the 
choice  of  Mr.  Forth  finally  fell ;  and  under  the  care 
of  a  horse-dealer,  entrusted  besides  with  an  addition 
to  the  Duke's  stables,  the  child  was  accordingly  de- 
spatched to  Paris.  "  I  have  the  honour,"  wrote  Forth 
to  the  Duke,  "  of  sending  your  Serene  Highness  the 
prettiest  little  girl  and  the  handsomest  mare  in 
England." 

Pamela  herself  declared  in  after-days  that  she  perfectly 
recollected  being  delivered  over  to  the  Due  d'Orleans  ; 
who,  receiving  her  at  a  side  door  of  the  Palace, 
took  her  in  his  arms,  kissed  her,  and,  carrying  her 
along  some  dusky  passages,  presented  her  to  Madame 
de  Genlis  with  the  words,  "  Voila  notre  petit  bijou  !  " 

Whether  implicit  confidence  is  to  be  placed  in 
Pamela's  reminiscences  may  be  questioned.  She  was 
one  of  those  women  to  whom  it  is  natural  to  view 
themselves  in  the  light  of  a  heroine,  and  circumstances 
had  fostered   the  disposition.     If  one   detects   in   her 


i2o  xtfe  of  Xoro  Bowaro  3ftt3<3eralo 

later  recollections  in  particular  a  flavour  of  the  melo- 
dramatic, it  is  only  fair  to  remember  that  her  training 
may  have  been  partly  responsible  for  the  tendency. 
Madame  de  Genlis  herself  had  been  almost  from 
infancy  a  theatrical  performer,  and  records  in  her 
Memoirs  that  it  had  been  at  the  early  age  of  eleven, 
and  from  a  young  man  with  whom  she  had  played 
comedy  and  tragedy  for  two  years,  that  she  first 
received  a  declaration  of  the  passion  she  had  inspired. 
No  doubt  Pamela  enjoyed  the  full  benefit  of  her 
foster-mother's  instructions  in  this  direction  as  well 
as  in  others.  A  scene  is  indeed  described  by  the 
Marquise  de  Larochejacquelin  which  throws  a  curious 
light  upon  the  species  of  training  received  by  the 
child  at  the  hands  of  a  lady  who  was  considered  so 
great  an  authority  on  education  that  Southey  re- 
commended all  who  would  study  the  subject  to 
acquaint  themselves  with  her  works. 

Taken  as  a  child  by  her  grandmother,  the  Duchesse 
de  Civrac,  to  visit  the  Salon  at  an  hour  when  only 
privileged  guests  were  admitted,  a  meeting  took  place 
with  the  three  little  Orleans  princes  and  their  sister,  also 
studying  art  under  the  superintendence  of  their  gover- 
ness ;  and  Madame  de  Larochejacquelin,  upon  whose 
childish  mind  the  incident  had  made  an  evident 
impression,  relates  how,  struck  by  the  unusual  beauty 
of  Pamela,  then  about  seven  years  old,  her  grand- 
mother had  made  her  compliments  on  the  subject  to 
the  little  girl's  guardian,  receiving  in  reply  to  her 
questions    the    answer,    made     "a     mi-voix,    mais    je 


Xife  of  %ovb  JEbxoavb  $it$Qem\b         121 

l'entendis,  '  Oh,  c'est  une  histoire  bien  touchante, 
bien  interessante,  que  celle  de  cette  petite  ;  je  ne  puis 
vous  la  raconter  en  ce  moment.'  " 

Further,  with  the  object  of  proving  that  it  was 
not  in  looks  alone  that  her  charge  excelled,  Madame 
de  Genlis  summoned  the  child,  desiring  her  to 
"act  Heloise."  Whereupon  the  little  girl,  plainly 
accustomed  to  the  performance  and  nothing  loath  to 
display  her  talents,  removed  the  comb  by  which  her 
hair  was  confined,  and  flung  herself  upon  the  ground 
in  an  attitude  expressive  of  an  ecstasy  of  passion  ; 
while  the  little  bystander  remained  "  stupefaite"  and 
the  great  lady,  having  expressed  her  appreciation  of 
the  performance  in  terms  that  left  nothing  to  be 
desired,  went  her  way  to  describe  to  her  friends  the 
version  she  had  witnessed  of  the  "  Nouvelle  Heloise," 
and  to  mock  at  the  system  of  education  pursued  in 
the  Orleans  schoolroom.1 

1  The  opinion  entertained  by  Lady  Sarah  Lennox  of  the  great 
educationalist  is  expressed  in  a  letter  written  shortly  after  Lord 
Edward's  marriage,  in  which  the  following  passage  occurs:  "Your 
account  of  Madame  Sillery  and  her  Sieves  answers  my  idea  of  her — 
all  pleasing  to  appearance,  and  nothing  sound  within  her  heart, 
whatever  may  be  so  in  the  young  minds  whom  she  can  and  does 
of  course  easily  deceive.  I  hope  we  have  got  our  lovely  little  niece 
time  enough  out  of  her  care  to  have  acquired  all  the  perfections 
of  her  education,  which  are  certainly  great,  as  she  has  a  very 
uncommon  clever,  active  mind,  and  turns  it  to  most  useful  pur- 
poses, and  I  trust  our  pretty  little  Sylphe  (for  she  is  not  like 
other  mortals)  has  not  a  tincture  of  all  the  double-dealing,  cunning, 
false  reasoning,  and  lies  with  which  Madame  S.  is  forced  to  gloss 
over  a  very  common  ill-conduct,  because  she  will  set  herself  above 
others  in  virtue,  and  she  happens  to  be  no  better  than  her  neighbours" 
(Life  and  Letters  of  Lady  Sarah  Lennox,  Vol.  II.,  p.  91). 


i22  Xife  of  %oro  JSowaro  3fit36et4alo 

Under  the  guardianship  of  Madame  de  Genlis,  and 
receiving  instructions  from  her  in  the  performance 
of  other  parts  besides  that  of  Heloise,  Pamela  remained 
until  the  date  of  her  marriage  with  Lord  Edward 
FitzGerald. 

Some  months  before  the  occurrence  of  that  event 
the  Duchesse  d'Orleans,  unable  any  longer  to  endure 
the  position  held  by  the  gouvernante  in  her  household, 
had  made  strenuous  efforts  to  effect  her  dismissal ; 
and  though  Madame  de  Genlis  had  at  first  refused 
to  be  dislodged  from  her  post,  she  had  been  finally 
compelled,  by  a  threat  of  exposure,  to  submit.  Such, 
at  least,  is  the  account  of  the  matter  furnished  by 
the  adherents  of  the  injured  Duchess  ;  that  given 
by  the  governess  being  naturally  of  a  different  nature. 
According  to  the  latter,  the  conduct  of  her  mistress 
having  become  such  that  she  could  no  longer  tolerate 
it  without  injury  to  her  self-respect,  Madame  de  Genlis 
herself  sent  in  her  resignation  to  the  Duke,  in  a  letter 
of  which  a  copy  is  inserted  in  her  Memoirs.  The 
melancholy  moment,  she  told  him,  had  arrived. 
Unless  reparation  should  be  made  her  within  three 
days,  she  was  compelled  to  claim  her  demission.  "You 
know,"  she  adds  pathetically,  "  whether  I  have  been 
gentle,  patient,  and  temperate  ;  but  at  last  I  am  forced 
to  adopt  a  course  which  rends  my  heart." 

However  it  had  been  achieved,  the  triumph  of  the 
Duchess  was  of  short  duration.  Madame  de  Genlis 
was  soon  recalled  by  the  Duke,  reinstated  in  her 
former   post,    and    presently,    in    consequence    of   the 


%itc  of  %ovb  iSbwavb  jfit36eralfc  123 

disturbed  condition  of  Paris,  was  sent  by  him  to 
England  in  charge  of  his  daughter,  Pamela  being  also 
of  the  party. 

It  was  not  the  first  visit  of  Pamela  to  England 
since  she  and  the  mare  had  crossed  the  Channel  in 
each  other's  company.  Six  years  earlier,  as  a  child  of 
twelve,  she  had  accompanied  her  guardian,  when  the 
honour  of  a  Doctor's  degree  had  been  conferred  upon 
Madame  de  Genlis,  and  had  on  that  occasion  been 
taken  to  the  house  of  Horace  Walpole,  who  has  left 
upon  record  his  impressions  of  his  visitors. 

Walpole  was  not  altogether  an  unprejudiced  critic, 
for  it  is  clear  from  the  terms  in  which  he  announced 
to  a  correspondent  the  arrival  in  England  of  the 
gouvernante  that  report  had  not  disposed  him  favourably 
towards  the  literary  lady.  There  was  a  bourgeois 
flavour  about  her  which  was  not  likely  to  incline  him 
to  condone  the  faults  with  which  she  was,  justly  or 
unjustly,  credited  ;  nor  did  he  share  Southey's  admir- 
ation for  her  educational  theories. 

Expressing  his  disgust  at  Rousseau's  Confessions, 
he  went  on  to  observe  that  Rousseau's  hen,  the 
schoolmistress,  Madame  de  Genlis,  was  said  to  have 
arrived  in  London  ;  adding  that  the  eggs  that  both 
he  and  she  laid  would  be  ready  to  die  of  old  age. 

In  a  second  letter,  however,  written  after  he  had 
made  the  personal  acquaintance  of  the  lady,  he  was 
compelled,  though  somewhat  grudgingly,  to  allow  that 
he  had  found  her  pleasanter  and  more  natural  than  he 
had  expected  ;  while  of  Pamela  he  observed  sardonically, 


i24         %ltc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfft3<3eralo 

finding  no  doubt  what  he  expected  to  find,  that 
Madame  de  Genlis  "  had  educated  her  to  be  very- 
like  herself  in  the  face." 

That  visit  had  been  paid  in  the  summer  of  1785, 
It  was  six  years  later  that,  towards  the  end  of  179 1, 
Madame  de  Genlis  and  her  adopted  daughter,  this 
time  accompanied  by  Mademoiselle  d'Orleans,  again 
arrived  in  England,  and  after  some  short  delay  pro- 
ceeded to  Bath,  where  Mademoiselle  had  been  ordered 
for  the  sake  of  her  health. 

Madame  de  Genlis  was  certain,  wherever  she  might 
find  herself,  to  utilise  to  the  utmost  the  resources 
of  the  place.  During  her  stay  at  the  fashionable 
watering-place  she  combined  education  with  amusement 
by  engaging  a  box  at  the  local  theatre,  with  the  view 
of  perfecting  herself  and  her  charges  in  the  use  of 
the  English  language  ;  and  it  was  doubtless  at  this 
time  that  Southey  caught  the  glimpse  of  Pamela  of 
which  he  has  given  the  account. 

"  They  who  have  seen  Pamela,"  he  says,  "  would 
think  anything  interesting  that  related  to  her.  I  once 
sat  next  her  in  the  Bath  theatre  " — he  is  writing  some 
six  years  later.  "  Madame  de  Sillery " — by  which 
name  Madame  de  Genlis  was  likewise  known — "  was 
on  the  seat  with  her  ;  but  with  physiognomical  con- 
trition I  confess  that,  while  my  recollection  of  Pamela's 
uncommon  beauty  is  unimpaired,  I  cannot  retrace  a 
feature  of  the  authoress." 

The  visit  to  Bath  concluded,  the  travellers  estab- 
lished themselves  at  Bury,  a  place  frequented  by  other 


%ifc  of  Xoro  JS&war&  3fft3<Beralo  125 

French  emigrants  ;  where  the  household  set  up  by  the 
gouvernante  is  said  to  have  been  of  singular  composition, 
having  attached  to  it  several  men  of  anomalous 
position,  who  were  alternately  treated  as  equals  and 
as  domestics.  The  vagaries  indulged  in  by  the  head 
of  the  establishment  during  her  residence  at  this  place 
were  also  reported  to  have  been  such  as  to  attract  a 
degree  of  criticism  which  rendered  her  eventually 
not  unwilling  to  quit  the  neighbourhood. 

She  would  seem,  however,  to  have  been  still  located 
at  Bury  when,  in  September,  1792,  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  for  reasons  connected  with  the  laws  then  to 
be  passed  with  regard  to  emigrants,  wrote  to  recall 
his  daughter  to  France.  It  was  probably  under  these 
circumstances  that  her  governess,  terrified  at  the 
prospect  of  a  return  to  Paris  in  its  present  con- 
dition of  anarchy — a  condition  attributed  in  part 
by  the  Due  de  Liancourt  to  the  unfortunate  in- 
fluence she  herself  exercised  over  Orleans — sent  a 
frantic  appeal  to  Charles  James  Fox  for  assistance 
and  protection. 

To  the  English  statesman  she  was  personally  little 
known,  though  that  one  meeting  at  least  had  taken 
place  during  her  present  visit  to  England  is  clear 
from  an  account  given  by  Samuel  Rogers  of  a  party 
at  which  both  Fox  and  Sheridan  were  guests,  the 
latter  engaged  in  writing  verses,  in  very  imperfect 
French,  to  Pamela,  who,  with  her  guardian  and 
Mademoiselle  d'Orleans,  was  present. 

However  limited  their  intercourse  had  been,  Madame 


i26  %ifc  of  Xoro  Bbwaro  tfitscBeralo 

de  Genlis  was  not  a  woman  to  be  deterred  by  the 
slightness  of  an  acquaintance  from  turning  it  to  the 
best  account.  Her  appeal  was  couched  in  hysterical 
terms.  Dangers,  real  or  imaginary,  had  pursued  her 
across  the  Channel.  At  all  times  prone  to  create  around 
her  an  atmosphere  of  romance,  her  excitable  imagina- 
tion had  now  become  possessed  by  the  idea  of  a 
conspiracy  to  carry  off  Mademoiselle.  She  represented 
herself  as  environed  by  peril.  Anonymous  letters  of  a 
threatening  nature  had  reached  her,  in  one  of  which 
she  was  designated  as  a  "savage  fury,"  and  her  terrors 
had  now  attained  their  climax. 

(<  I  am  uneasy,  sick,  unhappy,"  she  told  Fox,  "  and 
surrounded  by  the  most  dreadful  snares  of  the  fraud 
and  wickedness  !  "  After  which  she  begged  the  states- 
man to  pardon  her  "  bad  language  " — meaning,  it  is 
fair  to  explain,  her  lack  of  conversancy  with  the 
English  tongue  ;  and  concluded  with  entreaties  that  a 
man  of  law  might  be  despatched  without  delay  to 
her  aid. 

There  was  one  other  person,  and  one  only,  so  she 
told  Mr.  Fox,  in  whom  she  placed  confidence.  That 
man  was  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan. 

Whether  or  not  it  was  at  the  party  already  mentioned 
that  Pamela's  first  introduction  to  Sheridan  took  place 
we  have  no  means  of  knowing  ;  but  some  months 
before  Madame  de  Genlis's  letter  was  written  and 
when  his  first  wife,  the  beautiful  Miss  Linley,  was 
still  alive,  he  had  drawn  so  fair  a  portrait,  for  her 
benefit   and    that    of  Lord    Edward   FitzGerald,  who 


Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  pinx. 

Miss  Linley   (Mrs.  Sheridan)  as  St.  Cecilia. 


Page  126. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3Fit3<Beralo  127 

happened  to  be  present,  of  a  young  French  girl 
he  had  lately  met,  that  Mrs.  Sheridan,  even  then  in 
the  grasp  of  the  malady  which  was  to  prove  fatal, 
turning  to  the  visitor  with  a  melancholy  smile, 
observed,  "  I  should  like  you,  when  I  am  dead,  to 
marry  that  girl."     The  girl  was  Pamela. 

Sheridan,  in  his  description,  had  dwelt  upon  the 
likeness  he  had  discovered  in  the  stranger  to  his  own 
wife  in  the  days  of  her  early  bloom.  Whether  or 
not  that  resemblance  was  to  blame  for  their  infidelity, 
it  is  a  curious  coincidence  that,  within  the  space  of 
little  more  than  a  year,  not  one  but  both  of  her 
hearers,  husband  and  friend,  are  said  to  have  laid 
their  hearts  at  the  feet  of  the  girl  of  whom  she 
spoke. 

"When  I  am  dead."  The  affection  of  Lord  Edward 
for  the  beautiful  woman,  some  five  or  six  years  older 
than  himself,  already  marked  for  death,  was  only 
likely  to  be  misinterpreted  by  a  mind  such  as  that  of 
Madame  de  Genlis,  who  did  not  fail  to  put  her  own 
construction  upon  it.  That  there  should  have  been 
mutual  admiration,  observes  Moore,  between  two  such 
noble  specimens  of  human  nature,  it  is  easy,  without 
injury  to  either,  to  believe,  and  he  is  doubtless 
right. 

Though  remaining  attached  to  his  wife  to  the  end, 
the  fervour  of  Sheridan's  passion  would  seem  to  have 
cooled  before  her  death.  Such  at  least  is  the  inference 
to  be  drawn  from  a  speculation  in  which  he  was 
overheard    indulging,    as    to    whether    anything   could 


i28  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<Beralo 

avail  to  bring  back  his  first  feelings  for  her,  adding 
that  it  was  possible  that  result  might  be  produced  by 
a  sight  of  the  cottage  which  had  been  their  first  home 
in  common.  The  anecdote,  indulgently  cited  by  his 
biographer  as  a  proof  that  love,  in  the  very  act  of 
lamenting  its  own  decay,  was  still  alive,  nevertheless 
suggests  the  reflection  that  a  woman  used  to  worship 
might  excusably  find  charm  in  a  devotion  which  had 
not  suffered  from  the  action  of  time. 

Mrs.  Sheridan,  at  any  rate,  did  not  long  bar  the 
way  to  other  attachments.  By  June,  1792,  she  was 
in  her  grave,  leaving  husband  and  friend  alike  at 
liberty  to  turn  their  attention  elsewhere. 

It  was  in  September  of  the  same  year  that  Madame 
de  Genlis's  appeal  to  Mr.  Fox  was  made.  What 
response  was  elicited  from  the  statesman  does  not 
appear  ;  but  Sheridan,  to  whom  he  sent  on  her  letter — 
not  impossibly  with  a  shrewd  suspicion  that  the 
adventure  was  likely  to  prove  more  to  the  taste  of 
the  playwright  than  to  his  own — repaired  without  delay 
to  Madame  de  Genlis's  country  retreat,  in  order  to 
bestow  upon  her  in  person  his  counsel  and  advice, 
with  the  result  of  the  removal,  in  October,  of  the 
whole  French  party  to  London. 

From  that  time  forward  until  their  departure  from 
England,  Sheridan  seems  to  have  taken  the  manage- 
ment of  affairs  into  his  own  hands.  After  a  brief 
interval  passed  at  an  hotel,  Madame  de  Genlis,  still  a 
prey  to  her  fears  and  further  alarmed  by  the  proposal 
— accompanied,  if  she  is  to  be  credited,  by  threats  of 


Xife  of  Xoro  Bbwaro  jfit3<3eralb  129 

violence — on  the  part  of  an  Irish  gentleman  named 
Rice  to  arrange  for  her  safety  and  that  of  her  charges 
by  their  immediate  shipment  to  America  or  by  their 
removal  to  his  Irish  estate,  consented  to  accept 
Sheridan's  proffered  hospitality  under  the  roof  of 
a  house  at  Isleworth  which,  according  to  Horace 
Walpole,  he  had  rented  from  a  Mrs.  Keppel  at  a  rate 
of  four  hundred  a  year,  on  being  compelled  to  leave 
his  residence  in  Bruton  Street  through  inability  to 
satisfy  the  claims  of  his  landlord.  "Almost  the  first 
night  he  came  to  Isleworth,"  adds  the  distinguished 
gossip,  "  he  gave  a  ball  there,  which  will  not  precipitate 
Mrs.  K.'s  receipts." 

So  long  as  balls  or  other  entertainments  more  suit- 
able to  the  condition  of  the  new-made  widower  were 
to  be  enjoyed,  Madame  de  Genlis  was  not  likely 
to  feel  an  undue  amount  of  solicitude  concerning 
her  host's  liabilities.  A  month  was  passed  pleasantly 
enough  at  Isleworth — an  interval  during  which  the 
Due  d'Orleans  was  fuming  in  vain  at  Paris  over 
his  daughter's  delay  in  yielding  obedience  to  his 
summons,  and  the  not  inconsolable  Sheridan  was 
falling  so  deeply  in  love  that — again  on  Madame  de 
Genlis's  authority — he  made  Pamela,  two  days  before 
the  date  finally  fixed  upon  for  the  departure  of  his 
guests,  a  formal  offer  of  marriage. 

Whether  the  proposal  is  to  be  regarded  in  the  light 
of  a  serious  one,  or  whether  the  whole  affair  was 
viewed  by  the  playwright  merely  as  a  diverting 
episode,   remains  a  doubtful  question  ;    nor  does    his 

9 


i3°  Xife  of  3Loro  lEowaro  tfft3(3eralo 

subsequent  conduct  serve  to  elucidate  it.  Two  days 
after  the  offer  had  been  made  and  accepted,  the  party 
set  out  for  Dover,  on  the  understanding  that  Madame 
de  Genlis,  after  duly  placing  Mademoiselle  in  the 
hands  of  her  father,  should  return  to  England  with 
Pamela,  and  that  the  marriage  should  then  take  place. 
Apparently,  however,  more  anxious  to  secure  the 
present  companionship  of  his  betrothed  than  to  hasten 
his  permanent  possession  of  her,  Sheridan  contrived, 
by  means  of  what,  in  the  opinion  of  his  biographer,  was 
an  elaborate  practical  joke,  so  to  terrify  her  guardian 
by  the  astonishing  adventures  encountered  on  the  way 
to  the  coast  that,  returning  to  London,  she  threw 
herself  once  more,  with  her  charges,  upon  the  hospi- 
tality of  the  comedian,  to  last  until  such  time — it 
proved  to  be  no  less  than  a  month  distant — as  the 
claims  of  business  should  permit  of  his  giving  the 
travellers  his  personal  escort  to  the  coast.  The 
journey  on  this  second  occasion  was  accomplished  in 
safety  ;  and,  arrived  at  Dover,  a  tearful  parting  took 
place,  Sheridan,  according  to  Madame  de  Genlis, 
being  prevented  by  his  political  duties  alone  from 
attending  the  party  to  Paris. 

Had  Mr.  Sheridan  seriously  contemplated  making 
the  little  French  adventuress  his  wife,  he  would  have 
done  well  to  disregard  the  claims  of  duty.  That  leave- 
taking  by  the  sea  is  the  last  occasion  in  which  he 
appears  in  the  character  of  her  affianced  husband. 
Whether  the  discovery  of  the  unsatisfactory  condition 
of  his    finances   led    Madame   de    Genlis  to  entertain 


/.  Russell,  pm.x.  Photo,  by  Walker  &  Cockerel! 

Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan. 


page  131. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit36eralo  131 

doubts  of  the  prudence  of  the  arrangement  ;  whether 
the  young  lady  herself  had  already  wearied  of  a  lover 
more  than  twice  her  age,  Sheridan  being  above  forty, 
and  Pamela  not  more  than  either  fifteen  or  nineteen 
according  as  we  accept  her  own  statement  or  that  of 
her  adopted  mother — there  exists  a  discrepancy  of 
no  less  than  four  years  ;  or  whether  the  appearance 
of  a  more  eligible  suitor  was  sufficient  to  banish 
the  recollection  of  poor  Sheridan's  claims,  it  is  clear 
that  no  morbid  sense  of  honour  was  permitted  to 
darken  counsel,  or  to  prove  a  hindrance  to  the  forma- 
tion of  fresh  ties.  There  is  not  so  much  as  a  mention 
of  the  fact  of  her  late  host's  dismissal  ;  he  simply, 
so  far  as  Pamela  is  concerned,  disappears  from  the 
scene. 

As  for  the  dramatist  himself,  whatever  may  have 
been  his  sentiments  towards  the  pretty  little  French 
girl — and  one  would  be  loath  to  believe  that  he 
regarded  her,  by  reason  of  her  doubtful  origin  and 
dependent  position,  as  fitted  to  be  cast  for  a  leading 
part  in  a  farce — it  does  not  appear  that  her  infidelity 
left  him  inconsolable.  Four  years  later,  turning  his 
back  upon  wandering  heroines  of  romance,  he  married 
the  daughter  of  a  Dean  and  the  granddaughter 
of  a  Bishop,  possessed  not  only  of  the  unsubstantial 
advantages  of  youth  and  beauty,  but  of  the  more  solid 
recommendations  of  four  thousand  pounds. 

Returning  to  Pamela,  one  of  the  series  of  episodes 
which  make  up  her  history  was  concluded.  Another 
was    promptly  to  begin,    and  that    the    one  to    which 


132  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<Seralo 

her  interest  in  the  eyes  of  English  readers  is  chiefly 
due.1 

1  It  is  curious  that  in  Sheridan's  latest  and  fullest  biography  not 
only  is  silence  preserved  as  to  this  entire  episode,  but  no  mention  is 
made  of  the  two  months,  more  or  less,  spent  by  the  foreign  visitors  at 
Isleworth,  Whether  or  not  the  statements  of  Madame  de  Genlis  as  to 
the  relations  between  her  adopted  daughter  and  Sheridan  are  allowed 
to  carry  weight,  that  those  relations  were  at  least  of  a  nature  to 
attract  the  attention  of  London  society  is  plain  from  a  letter  written 
in  October,  1792,  by  Lady  Elliot  to  Lady  Malmesbury,  in  which  an 
assertion  is  hazarded  to  the  effect  that  Sheridan  "is  so  much  in  love 
with  Madame  de  Genlis's  Pamela,  that  he  means  to  marry  her,  if  she 
will  have  him " ;  while  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot  himself  later  on,  after 
announcing  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald's  marriage  to  "  Pamela,  Madame 
de  Genlis's  daughter,"  goes  on  to  add  that  "Sheridan  is  said  to  have 
been  refused  by  her." 


CHAPTER    IX 

1792 

Lord  Edward  in  Paris — Spirit  of  the  Revolution — Enthusiasm 
in  England  and  Ireland — Shared  by  Lord  Edward — 
Compromising  Action  on  his  Part — Meeting  with  Pamela 
— The  Due  d'Orleans  and  Madame  de  Genlis — Marriage 
of  Lord  Edward  and  Pamela — Lord  Edward  Cashiered. 

WHEN  Madame  de  Genlis  and  her  charges  at 
length  reached  Paris,  another  visitor  had 
arrived  there — a  visitor  who  had  already  spent  some 
weeks  in  the  French  capital,  and  whose  stay  was  now 
drawing  to  an  end.    This  was  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald. 

The  course  of  events  in  France  had  been  watched 
with  intense  interest  by  lookers-on  in  England,  by 
whom  they  had  been  regarded  with  sentiments  ranging 
from  the  deepest  distrust  of  the  "  strange,  nameless, 
wild,  and  enthusiastic  thing "  which  the  Republican 
Government  appeared  to  Burke,  together  with  horror 
at  the  brutalities  by  which  it  had  already  been  dis- 
figured, to  the  most  extravagant  enthusiasm  for  what 
was  looked  upon  as  the  dawn  of  an  epoch  of  justice, 
liberty,  and  peace. 

Among  responsible  statesmen,  the  unmeasured 
admiration  that   had  been  entertained  by  Fox  for  the 

133 


i34  Xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<3eralo 

principles  which  were  now  achieving  their  triumph 
was  so  well  recognised  that  even  after  the  massacres 
of  September,  1792,  his  refusal  of  the  proffered  honour 
of  French  citizenship  seems  to  have  caused  surprise 
as  well  as  disappointment  to  those  employed  to  sound 
him  on  the  subject.  When  the  Revolution  Society 
hired  Ranelagh  for  the  celebration  of  the  anniversary 
of  the  French  Confederation,  it  was  announced  that 
Sheridan  would  take  part  in  the  proceedings.  While, 
as  an  instance  of  the  hopes  which  prevailed  at  the 
time  among  less  practical  politicians  with  regard  to  the 
new  era  which  had  been  inaugurated,  it  may  suffice 
to  quote  the  opinion  gravely  expressed  by  so  un- 
emotional a  philosopher  as  William  Godwin,  who 
asserted  his  belief  that,  granted  a  condition  of 
sufficient  liberty — such  as  that  now  obtaining  in  France 
— the  existence  of  vice  would  be  impossible. 

The  spirit  of  the  Revolution  was  essentially  a 
proselytising  one.  Its  emissaries  were  constantly 
making  their  appearance,  in  London  and  elsewhere, 
with  the  object  of  spreading  abroad  the  principles 
upon  which  it  had  been  based,  and  of  offering  sympathy 
and  help  to  those  suffering  under  injustice  and  wrong. 
The  disinherited  of  all  nations  were  at  length  to  be 
put  in  possession  of  that  which  was  theirs  by  right. 
The  liberty  which  France  had  already  made  her  own 
was  to  be  diffused  over  the  entire  face  of  the  earth. 

It  was  a  dazzling  dream,  to  which  converts  were 
made  every  day  ;  nor  was  England  slow  to  respond 
to    the    advances    she    received.       Every   class   which 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jftt3<5eralo  135 

had,  or  conceived  itself  to  have,  a  grievance,  looked 
across  the  Channel  for  help  ;  English  revolutionary 
societies  sent  deputations  to  France  to  offer  the 
congratulations  of  those  they  represented  at  the  bar 
of  the  Convention.  In  an  address  to  the  latter  put 
forth  by  a  large  body  of  Englishmen,  it  was  declared 
to  be  the  duty  of  all  true  Britons  to  support  and 
assist  the  defenders  of  the  Rights  of  Man  and  the 
propagators  of  human  felicity,  and  to  swear  in- 
violable friendship  to  France,  the  land  which  was 
already  what  Britons  were  preparing  to  become — 
free.  It  was  hoped  to  establish  a  National  Convention 
on  the  French  model ;  and,  in  the  words  of  the 
President,  the  festival  which  had  been  celebrated  in 
England  in  honour  of  the  Revolution  in  France  was 
the  prelude  to  the  festival  of  nations. 

It  is  difficult,  now  that  more  than  a  hundred  years 
has  passed  since  that  fever  fit  of  hope  and  anticipation, 
to  realise  the  condition  of  excitement  which  so  widely 
prevailed.  Some  of  the  ideals  then  first  heard  of,  at 
least  by  the  crowd,  have  been  partially  realised  ;  some 
of  the  principles  then  enunciated  have  almost  taken 
their  place  as  unquestioned  truisms.  And  still  sin  and 
misery  are  as  rife  as  ever  among  us,  nor  are  there 
any  indications  that  they  are  likely  to  cease  to 
exist.  The  results  to  be  looked  for  through  im- 
provement in  political  institutions  have  been  modified 
and  corrected  by  experience.  But  a  century  ago  it 
was  a  different  matter.  Nothing  then  appeared  to 
the  devotees  of  the  new  faith  impossible. 


136  Xife  of  Xorb  Eowaro  tftt3©eralo 

The  attitude  of  a  large  section  of  English  democrats 
has  been  described.  It  was  only  what  was  to  be 
expected  that  in  Ireland,  where  no  traditional  pre- 
judice with  regard  to  France  had  to  be  overcome 
and  where  existing  grievances  were  pressing  with 
incomparably  greater  weight  than  on  the  other  side 
of  St.  George's  Channel,  enthusiasm  should  have 
risen  to  a  still  greater  height.  The  absolute  religious 
equality,  in  particular,  which  formed  a  fundamental 
principle  of  the  Republic,  was  calculated  to  appeal 
with  special  force  to  Irish  sentiment  at  a  time 
when  adherents  of  all  creeds  were  to  be  found 
combining  in  a  common  cause,  and  when  a  de- 
termination on  the  part  of  the  national  party  to  sink 
religious  differences  and  to  work  together  in  harmony 
was  finding  expression  in  the  formation  of  that 
"  Plot  of  Patriots  " — the  Society  of  United  Irishmen. 
Although  the  Established  Church  maintained  its  opposi- 
tion to  the  popular  demands,  such  an  amalgamation 
of  other  religious  parties  had  taken  place  as  might  well 
cause  disquiet  to  the  Government.  A  new  enthusiasm, 
according  to  Grattan,  had  gone  forth  in  the  place  of 
religion,  much  more  adverse  to  kings  than  Popery, 
and  infinitely  more  prevailing — the  spirit  of  Re- 
publicanism. 

That  this  spirit  should  be  vehemently  enlisted  on 
the  side  of  France,  engaged  almost  single-handed  in 
her  struggle  with  those  pledged  to  the  maintenance 
of  ancient  rights  and  customs  and  privileges,  was  of 
course   inevitable  ;    nor  was  Ireland  slow  to  give  ex- 


%ifc  of  %ovv  Eowarb  tfit3(Beralfc  137 

pression  to  her  sympathy.  On  July  14th,  I792? 
Belfast  celebrated,  in  true  Republican  fashion,  the 
anniversary  of  the  French  Revolution  ;  and  at 
a  dinner  given  a  day  or  two  later  in  honour  of 
the  occasion.  Catholic  and  Protestant  Dissenter  met 
together  in  unity  and  friendship,  the  four  flags  of 
America,  France,  Poland,  and  Ireland  being  displayed, 
while  that  of  England  was  conspicuous  by  its  absence. 

When  such  were  the  feelings  called  forth  by  the 
Revolution  amongst  the  men,  both  in  England  and 
Ireland,  whose  opinions  he  shared,  it  was  not  to  be 
expected  that  Lord  Edward  would  remain  uninfected 
by  the  contagion  of  the  prevailing  spirit.  Nor  was 
he  likely  to  be  content  to  watch  the  progress  of 
events  from  afar. 

a  Is  it  not  delightful  ? "  he  had  written  to  his 
mother  in  October,  referring  to  the  "  good  French 
news  " — doubtless  the  retreat  of  the  allies  and  the 
success  of  the  Republican  arms.  "  It  is  really  shameful 
to  see  how  much  it  has  affected  all  our  aristocrats. 
I  think  one  may  fairly  say  the  Duke  of  Brunswick 
and  his  Germans  are  bedeviled." 

Unable  to  resign  himself  to  remaining  at  a  distance 
from  the  centre  of  interest,  by  the  end  of  the  same 
month  he  was  making  an  inspection  of  French  affairs 
at  head-quarters,  and  writes  from  Paris,  dating  his 
letter  the  first  year  of  the  Republic,  to  reassure  the 
Duchess  as  to  any  possible  risk  to  be  incurred  in  his 
present  surroundings.  The  town,  he  tells  her,  is 
perfectly     quiet,     and     for     him    a    most     interesting 


138  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfitsOeralo 

scene,  which  on  no  account  would  he  have  missed 
witnessing. 

No  doubt,  from  his  own  point  of  view,  he  was 
seeing  Paris  under  favourable  circumstances,  for  he 
was  lodging  in  the  same  house  with  Thomas  Paine, 
and  liked  his  host  better  and  better. 

"  The  more  I  see  of  his  interior,  the  more  I  like 
and  respect  him.  I  cannot  express  how  kind  he  is  to 
me.  ...  I  pass  my  time  very  pleasantly — read,  walk, 
and  go  quietly  to  the  play.  I  have  not  been  to  see 
any  one,  nor  shall  not.  I  often  want  you,  dearest 
mother,  but  I  should  not  have  been  able  to  bear 
Tunbridge  for  any  time.  The  present  scene  occupies 
my  thoughts  a  great  deal,  and  dissipates  unpleasant 
feelings  very  much." 

Though  it  may  have  been  true  that  Lord  Edward 
did  not  pay  visits,  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  Mr.  Paine's 
disciple  did  not  wholly  lead  the  life  of  a  recluse  ;  since 
it  appears  that,  a  little  later  on,  the  popular  philosopher 
found  himself  so  overwhelmed  with  those  who  sought 
his  society  that  he  was  compelled  to  set  apart  two 
mornings  each  week  for  the  purpose  of  holding  a 
species  of  levee,  from  which  it  is  not  probable  that 
Lord  Edward  would  be  absent.  Constant  visits  to 
the  Assembly  also  alternated  with  the  playgoing  ; 
and  there  was  no  fear  of  time  hanging  heavy  on  the 
hands  of  the  young  Englishman. 

Not  only  was  his  interest  in  the  events  that  were 
going  forward  keen  and  alert,  but  his  revolutionary 
sympathies  were  strangely  unaffected  by  any  misgivings 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  fftt3<Beralo  139 

as  to  the  methods  of  the  Republican  leaders.  There 
are  blanks  in  all  histories — questions  to  which  no 
answer  can  be  given.  It  will  never  be  known  how 
to  a  nature  as  gentle  and  as  compassionate  as  that  of 
Lord  Edward,  it  was  apparently  possible  to  condone 
those  September  butcheries,  of  whose  victims  the 
blood  was  scarcely  dry  ;  which  had  been  cause  of 
alienation  to  so  many  well-wishers  of  the  Revolution, 
and  were  allowed  by  so  violent  a  partisan  as  Fox — 
while  striving  to  exonerate  the  Jacobins  from  re- 
sponsibility in  the  matter — to  be  crimes  incapable  of 
extenuation. 

Whatever  had  been  the  means  by  which  he  had 
explained  and  reconciled  himself  to  the  past,  it  seems 
clear  that  no  recollection  of  the  ghastly  scenes  en- 
acted in  Paris  not  two  months  previous  to  his 
visit  had  availed  to  damp  Lord  Edward's  spirits, 
to  have  cast  a  shadow  over  his  bright  and  sanguine 
anticipations  with  regard  to  the  future,  or  to  have 
mingled  with  the  hopes  to  which  the  proceedings  of 
the   Convention   were   adapted   to  give  birth. 

To  a  man  of  his  nationality  and  opinions  those 
proceedings  were  likely  enough  to  appeal  with  peculiar 
force.  The  people  that  had  sat  in  darkness  were 
seeing  a  great  light,  and  nowhere  was  the  gloom 
deeper  than  in  Ireland.  What  must  therefore  have 
been  the  effect  upon  an  Irishman,  having  the  misery 
of  his  country  at  heart,  of  the  celebrated  decree,  passed 
on  November  19th,  by  which  the  revolutionary 
Government     of     France     made     formal     tender     of 


14°  Xifc  of  Store  Eowaro  fftt3<Beralo 

fraternity  and  assistance  to  all  nations,  without  dis- 
tinction, desirous  of  regaining  their  liberty  ;  directing 
further  the  Executive  to  issue  orders  to  the  Generals 
of  the  Republic  to  give  effect  to  the  decree. 

It  was  a  declaration  which,  menacing  all  tyrannies 
alike,  might  well  have  sounded  significantly  in  the 
ears  of  an  Irishman,  kindling  within  him  new  hopes 
for  the  future  of  that  "  most  distressful  country " 
he  called  his  own.  The  action  of  the  Convention 
was  well  calculated  to  dispel  any  misgivings — were  he 
likely  to  have  entertained  such — with  which  Lord 
Edward  might  otherwise  have  looked  back  upon 
certain  proceedings  in  which  he  had  taken  a  promi- 
nent part  on  the  very  day  before  the  decree  was 
promulgated. 

On  that  occasion  he  had  come  forward,  whether 
on  a  momentary  impulse  of  reckless  enthusiasm  or 
with  deliberate  intention,  to  make  public  confession 
of  his  political  faith. 

"  Yesterday  " — so  ran  the  announcement  in  the 
newspapers  of  the  occurrence  which  had  so  grave 
an  influence  on  Lord  Edward's  future — "  yesterday 
the  English  arrived  in  Paris  assembled  at  White's 
Hotel  [it  was  there  that  Paine  lodged]  to  celebrate 
the  triumph  of  the  victories  gained  over  their  late 
invaders  by  the  armies  of  France.  Though  the 
festival  was  intended  to  be  purely  British,  the  meeting 
was  attended  by  citizens  of  various  countries,  by 
members  of  the  Convention,  by  generals  and  other 
officers  of  the  armies  then  stationed  at  Paris  or  visitinp- 

o 


life  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3flt3<3eralO  141 

it,  J.  H.  Stone  in  the  chair.  Among  the  toasts 
were,  'The  armies  of  France  :  may  the  example 
of  its  citizen-soldiers  be  followed  by  all  enslaved 
countries,  till  tyrants  and  tyrannies  be  extinct !  '  .  .  . 
Among  several  toasts  proposed  by  the  Citizens  Sir  R. 
Smith  and  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  was  the  following  : 
1  May  the  patriotic  airs  of  the  German  Legion  (Ca 
Ira,  the  Carmagnole,  Marseillaise  March,  etc.)  soon 
become  the  favourite  music  of  every  army,  and  may 
the  soldier  and  the  citizen  join  in  the  chorus  !  '  Sir 
Robert  Smith  and  Lord  E.  FitzGerald  renounced 
their  titles  ;  and  a  toast  by  the  former  was  drunk  : 
'  The  speedy  abolition  of  all  hereditary  titles  and 
feudal  distinctions.'  " 

Thus  Lord  Edward  burnt  his  boats  behind  him 
and  finally  surrendered  himself  to  the  current  which 
was  carrying  him  along.  That,  though  reckless,  he 
was  not  blind  to  the  possible  results  of  his  conduct 
is  clear  from  a  letter  to  his  mother  written  about 
this  time,  announcing  his  intention  of  returning  to 
England  the  following  week,  when  he  would  settle 
his  majority,  if  he  were  not  scratched  out  of  the  army. 
The  possibility,  however,  does  not  appear  to  have 
weighed  on  his  spirits ;  and  again  his  admiration 
for  the  present  condition  of  French  sentiment  finds 
vent. 

"  I  am  delighted,"  he  says,  "  with  the  manner 
they  feel  their  success  :  no  foolish  boasting  or 
arrogance  at  it,  but  imputing  all  to  the  greatness 
and  goodness  of  their  cause,  and  seeming    to  rejoice 


142  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3<Beralo 

more  on  account  of  its  effects  on  Europe  in  general 
than  for  their  own  individual  glory.  ...  In  the  coffee- 
houses and  play-houses  every  man  calls  the  other 
camarade,  frere,  and  with  a  stranger  immediately  begins, 
'  Ah,  nous  sommes  tous  freres,  tous  hommes,  nos  victoires 
sont  pour  vous,  pour  tout  le  mondej  and  the  same  senti- 
ments are  always  received  with  peals  of  applause. 
In  short,  all  the  good,  enthusiastic  French  sentiments 
seem  to  come  out  ;  while,  to  all  appearance,  one  would 
say,  they  had  lost  all  their  bad." 

Notwithstanding,  however,  the  confidence  with 
which  he  claims  his  mother's  sympathy  for  his  political 
interests,  it  was,  one  cannot  doubt,  the  characteristic 
conclusion  of  the  letter  that  came  nearest  to  the 
Duchess's  heart. 

"  I  long  to  see  you,"  he  wrote,  "  and  shall  be 
with  you  the  beginning  of  the  week  after  next.  I 
cannot  be  long  from  you  "  ;  adding,  after  the  signature, 
tcIn  the  midst  of  my  patriotism  and  projects,  you 
are  always  the  first  thing  in  my  heart,  and  ever  must 
be,  my  dear,  dear  mother." 

It  was  possibly  the  last  time  that  such  an  assurance 
could  have  been  thus  worded.  Even  at  that  very 
moment,  had  the  Duchess  but  known  it,  there  was 
another  competitor — and  one  she  might  have  con- 
sidered more  formidable  than  even  his  patriotism — 
for  the  first  place  in  her  son's  affections.  In  the 
letter  containing  the  expression  of  his  unchanging 
devotion  he  includes,  amongst  other  items  of  intelli- 
gence, the  information  that   he  was  that  day  to   dine 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3<3eralo  143 

with  Madame  Sillery.  It  was  a  fact,  thus  baldly 
stated,  to  which  the  Duchess  was  not  likely  to  attach 
the  significance  in  truth  belonging  to  it,  until  such 
time  as  it  should  be  explained  to  her,  in  somewhat 
startling  fashion,   by  the  sequel. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Madame  de  Genlis 
and  her  two  charges,  Mademoiselle  d'Orleans  and 
Pamela,  had  taken  leave  of  Sheridan  at  Dover,  the 
latter  returning,  that  parting  over,  to  London  ; 
while  the  rest  of  the  party  were  to  proceed  to  Paris 
with  the  object  of  consigning  Mademoiselle  to  her 
father's  care. 

Circumstances,  however,  had  occurred  during  the 
delay  which  had  taken  place  in  obeying  his  summons 
now  rendering  the  Due  d'Orleans  as  desirous  of 
prolonging  his  daughter's  absence  from  France  as  he 
had  previously  been  anxious  to  hasten  her  return. 
A  courier  accordingly  was  despatched  who,  meeting 
the  travellers  at  Chantilly,  was  charged  with  instruc- 
tions that,  had  their  departure  from  England  not 
already  taken  place,  they  should  remain  in  that  country  ; 
and  that  in  any  case  they  should,  after  receiving  the 
Duke's  orders,  proceed  no  farther  on  their  way  to  Paris. 

If,  however,  the  Duke  had  changed  his  mind, 
Madame  de  Genlis  had  likewise  altered  her  own  ; 
and  finding  herself  so  far  upon  the  road,  she  appears 
to  have  determined  to  deliver  Mademoiselle  without 
further  delay  into  the  hands  of  her  father,  and  thus 
to  rid  herself  of  an  anxious  responsibility  and  regain 
her  liberty  to  go  where  she  pleased. 


i44  %ife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit30eralo 

"  I  paid  no  attention  to  this  order,"  she  calmly 
observes,  describing  the  occurrence  ;  proceeding  com- 
posedly on  her  way,  in  defiance  of  the  Duke's 
injunctions. 

At  Belle  Chasse  the  party  was  met  by  Egalite 
himself,  accompanied  by  M.  de  Sillery  and  others  ; 
when  Mademoiselle,  weeping  bitterly — it  does  not 
appear  for  what  cause — was  duly  given  over  to  the 
care  of  her  lawful  guardian. 

"  I  told  him,"  Madame  de  Genlis  adds,  "  that 
it  was  with  sorrow  I  gave  up  this  precious  charge, 
that  I  resigned  my  position  as  governess,  and  that  I 
should  set  out  the  next  morning  for  England,"  taking 
Pamela,  no  doubt,  with  her,  with  the  object  of 
consigning  her  second  charge  to  the  expectant  Sheridan, 
according  to  the  arrangement  made  with  him  before 
her  departure  from  Dover. 

It  appeared,  however,  that  obstacles  existed  in  the 
way  of  the  execution  of  her  plan.  The  age  now 
reached  by  Mademoiselle,  together  with  the  delay 
in  reaching  France  for  which  Madame  de  Genlis  had 
been  responsible,  had  brought  her  within  the  operation 
of  the  laws  recently  passed  respecting  emigrants. 
Feeling,  it  is  clear,  no  great  confidence  in  the  behaviour, 
under  the  circumstances,  of  his  friends  the  Jacobins, 
her  father  was  therefore  urgent  in  his  desire  that  the 
governess  should  continue,  for  the  present  at  least, 
at  her  post,  and  that,  conducting  the  girl  to  some 
neutral  territory,  she  should  remain  in  charge  of  her 
until  such   time   as   her    name   should   have   been   in- 


i-LEOC 


MAS6. 


Xife  of  %otb  Eowaro  ffit3(Beralo  145 

eluded  in  the  list  to  be  drawn  up  of  exceptions  to 
the  operation  of  the  new  law — a  matter  he  pledged 
himself  to  arrange  without  loss  of  time. 

Refusal  on  Madame  de  Genlis's  part  to  comply  with 
his  request  would  have  been  manifestly  impossible. 
It  was  accordingly  settled — the  governess  giving  her 
reluctant  assent — that  the  party  should  start  once  again 
on  their  travels,  after  a  delay  of  not  more  than  a 
couple  of  days,1  the  stipulation  being  added  by  the 
unwilling  guardian  that  should  it  be  found  necessary 
to  prolong  the  absence  of  her  pupil  from  Paris,  a 
rempla(ante  should  be  despatched  within  a  fortnight 
to  release  her  from  the  duties  which — possibly  owing 
to  the  thoughts  of  Sheridan  and  England — had  become 
so  suddenly  irksome. 

In  two  more  days,  therefore,  Madame  de  Genlis, 
with  Pamela,  would  have  been  at  a  safe  distance  from 
Paris,  and  the  course  of  Lord  Edward's  domestic  affairs 
would  have  been  a  different  one.  But  much  may 
happen  in  two  days.  That  same  evening  M.  de 
Sillery,  who  seems  to  have  been  at  the  moment 
assiduous  in  attendance,  had  the  happy  idea  of  escort- 
ing his  wife  and  her  charges  to  the  play,  in  order, 
as    Madame    de    Genlis    explains,    to    dissipate     their 

1  The  account  given  by  Tournois,  in  his  Life  of  the  Due  d'Orleans, 
of  this  episode  does  not  agree  in  all  points  with  that  of  Madame  de 
Genlis,  the  period  for  which  he  makes  the  travellers  delay  at  Paris 
being,  in  especial,  a  fortnight.  Whether  accurate  in  this  instance  or 
not,  his  mention  of  Lord  Edward  as  " premier  pair  cPIrlande"  as  well 
as  the  further  assertion  that,  condemned  to  death,  he  committed 
suicide  in  prison,  does  not  tend  to  place  his  reliability  as  an  authority 
beyond  question  (Tournois,  Vol.  II.,  p.  296). 

IO 


146  %itc  of  Xotro  lEowaro  iftt3(3eralo 

melancholy.  During  this  visit  to  the  theatre  an  incident 
occurred  which  appreciably  diminished  Madame  de 
Genlis's  impatience  to  return  to  England,  and  must 
have  been  more  efficacious  than  the  performance  they 
had  gone  to  witness  in  distracting  tbe  spirits  of  at 
least  one  of  the  party. 

Lord  Edward  had  mentioned  to  his  mother  that 
play-going  formed  one  of  his  Parisian  amusements, 
Accordingly,  on  the  same  night  that  Madame  de 
Genlis  and  her  pupils  were  seeking  solace  and  refresh- 
ment at  the  theatre,  he  had  also  resorted  thither  ;  and 
chancing  to  look  up,  he  was  struck  by  a  face  in  one 
of  the  boxes — a  face  which  recalled  to  him,  as  it  had 
to  poor  Sheridan,  that  of  Sheridan's  wife,  six  months 
dead,  and  was  that  of  the  girl  whom  she  had  said 
she  would  like  him,  when  she  herself  should  have 
passed  away,  to  marry. 

Lord  Edward  was  apparently  in  the  company  of  the 
Englishman,  Stone,  who  had  occupied  the  chair  at 
the  meeting  of  his  countrymen  in  Paris.  This  gentle- 
man was  acquainted  with  Madame  de  Genlis.  It  was 
probably  at  his  house  in  England  that  her  meeting 
with  Fox  and  Sheridan  had  taken  place,  and  she 
charged  him  some  years  later,  truly  or  falsely,  with 
the  embezzlement  of  certain  money  she  had  entrusted 
to  him.  At  the  present  moment  he  was  at  all  events 
in  a  position  to  effect  the  introduction  of  his  com- 
panion to  the  loge  grillee  in  which  the  fair  face  was  to 
be  found  ;  and  the  acquaintance  was  so  successfully 
inaugurated  that  by  the  very  next  day — so  it  would 


%itc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jftt3<3eralo  147 

appear — Lord  Edward  had  received  and  accepted  an 
invitation  to  dine  with  Madame  de  Genlis.  Pamela's 
guardian,  to  put  the  matter  plainly,  had  made  the 
most  of  her  flying  visit  to  Paris,  and  had  discovered 
in  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald  a  suitor  for  the  hand  of 
her  adopted  daughter  who  was  more  likely  to  com- 
mend himself  to  her  ward  than  the  impecunious  and 
middle-aged  lover  who  had  been  left  behind — in  tears 
or  otherwise — at  Dover. 

The  day  between  the  meeting  at  the  theatre  and  the 
departure  for  Tournay,  which  place  had  been  selected 
as  the  destination  of  the  travellers,  was  spent  at  Rainsy, 
in  company  with  the  Duke,  and,  again,  the  attentive 
Sillery.  The  former  was  in  no  happy  mood  ;  and 
absent,  impatient  and  careworn,  continued  to  pace 
up  and  down  the  room  ;  until,  the  winter's  day  being 
unusually  mild,  and  Pamela,  Mademoiselle,  and 
M.  de  Sillery  having  discreetly  betaken  them- 
selves to  the  garden,  he  took  the  opportunity  of 
informing  Madame  de  Genlis  that  he  had  declared 
himself  on  the  side  of  the  Republic  ;  and,  in  answer 
to  her  protest,  silenced  his  monitress  by  the  remark 
— not  the  more  courteous  when  the  profession  of  the 
lady  is  taken  into  account — that,  while  she  might  be 
worth  consulting  on  history  or  literature,  she  was 
certainly  not  so  when  it  was  a  question  of  politics. 

An  effectual  end  having  thus  been  put  to  the 
discussion  of  his  recent  course  of  action,  Madame  de 
Genlis,  casting  about  for  a  fresh  subject  of  conversa- 
tion,   put     the    pertinent    question     why,    under     the 


148  Xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fft3(Beralo 

circumstances,  he  continued  to  permit  his  house  to 
remain  decorated  by  the  forbidden  emblems  of  the 
fleur-de-lis?  It  appeared,  however,  that  this  topic 
was   no  more  happily  chosen   than  the  last. 

"  Because  it  would  be  cowardly  to  take  them  down," 
he  returned  roughly. 

Conversation  with  a  man  in  the  temper  in  which 
the  Duke  then  found  himself  is  not  easy  to  carry  on, 
and  poor  Madame  de  Genlis  adds  that,  later  on, 
she  found  M.  de  Sillery  no  more  ready  than  the 
Duke  to  accept  the  good  advice  she  was  prepared, 
with  a  fine  impartiality,  to  administer  to  him. 

All  things  considered,  she  did  not  feel  so  much 
regret,  one  may  imagine,  at  her  impending  banish- 
ment from  Paris  as  she  might  otherwise  have  done. 
At  any  rate,  she  made  no  further  delay  in  obeying 
the  Duke's  orders  ;  and  the  following  morning — the 
dinner  to  which  Lord  Edward  had  been  invited 
having  taken  place  in  the  meantime — the  travellers  set 
out  on  their  journey  to  Flanders.  The  Duke's  gloom, 
it  is  recorded,  was  more  profound  than  ever  as  he 
took  leave  of  his  daughter  ;  and  Mademoiselle,  who 
seems  to  have  been  addicted  to  weeping,  was  once 
more  in  tears. 

One  member,  however,  of  the  party  was,  we  are 
justified  in  concluding,  no  victim  to  the  general 
dejection  ;  since  at  the  first  stage  of  the  journey 
Lord  Edward  FitzGerald  joined  the  travellers,  and 
accompanied  them  on  their  way  to  Tournay. 

The  sequel  may  be  given  in   Madame  de  Genlis's 


Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  tfit3(3et:alo  149 

own  language — the  language  of  the  woman  who,  at 
a  later  date,  had  her  portrait  taken  with  a  copy  of 
the  Gospels  conspicuously  introduced  upon  a  table 
at  her  side,  that  volume  having  furnished,  as  she 
is  careful  to  explain,  the  basis  and  foundation  for 
all  her  own  literary  productions. 

"  We  arrived  at  Tournay,"  she  relates,  "  during 
the  first  days  of  December  of  this  same  year,  1792. 
Three  weeks  later  I  had  the  happiness  of  marrying 
my  adopted  daughter,  the  angelical  Pamela,  to  Lord 
Edward  FitzGerald.  In  the  midst  of  so  many 
misfortunes  and  injustices,  Heaven  desired  to  re- 
compense, by  this  happy  event,  the  best  action  of 
my  life — that  of  having  protected  helpless  innocence, 
of  having  brought  up  and  adopted  the  incomparable 
child  thrown  by  Providence  into  my  arms  ;  and 
finally  of  having  developed  her  intelligence,  her  reason, 
and  the  virtues  which  render  her  to-day  a  pattern 
wife   and   mother   of  her   age." 

Thus  Madame  de  Genlis  upon  the  subject  of  her 
own  good  deeds  and  the  success  with  which  they  had 
been  attended.  Whether  the  direct  interposition  of 
Heaven  in  the  matter  of  the  marriage  was  equally 
patent  to  Lord  Edward's  relations  may,  it  is  true, 
be  questioned.  One  may  permit  oneself  a  doubt 
whether,  by  birth,  training,  or  possibly  disposition, 
Madame  de  Genlis's  adopted  daughter  would  have 
been  precisely  the  wife  that  the  Duchess  of  Leinster 
would  have  desired  to  see  bestowed  upon  her  son. 
But,  however  that  may  be,  there  is  no  evidence  that, 


is©  Xite  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3<Beralo 

during  the  short  term,  five  years  and  a  half,  of  their 
married  life,  Lord  Edward  saw  cause  to  repent  of  the 
hazardous  experiment  upon  which  he  had  embarked 
with  such  perilous  haste.  Gentle,  affectionate,  and, 
above  all  things,  loyal  in  every  relationship  of  life, 
he  was  not  likely  to  prove  less  so  towards  the  girl 
who — like  a  child  caught  and  carried  along  in  a  funeral 
procession — had  been  made  his  wife  ;  and  if  it  is 
probable  that  he  found  in  her  a  companion  rather 
for  the  sunny  hours  of  life  than  a  comrade  in  the 
darker  paths  he  was  destined  later  on  to  tread,  no 
word  of  complaint  remains  to  record  the  fact. 

Another  change,  besides  that  effected  by  marriage, 
had  taken  place,  by  this  time,  in  Lord  Edward's 
existence,  present  and  future.  When  he  had  arrived 
in  Paris,  only  a  few  weeks  earlier,  he  had  been,  so 
far  as  domestic  ties  were  concerned,  a  free  man. 
He  had  also  held  a  commission  in  the  British  army. 
When  he  returned  to  England,  not  only  was  he  in 
possession  of  a  wife,  but  his  name  had  been  struck 
off  the  list  of  English  officers.  On  the  ostensible 
grounds  of  a  subscription  to  the  fund  raised  to  enable 
the  French  to  carry  on  the  war  against  their  invaders, 
but  more  probably  owing  to  the  publicity  given 
to  those  proceedings  in  Paris  of  which  mention 
has  been  made,  Lord  Edward  had  been  cashiered. 
On  the  very  day  that  his  marriage  was  taking  place 
at  Tournay,  Charles  James  Fox  was  lifting  his 
voice  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  protest  against 
the  action  which  had    been    thus    taken    in  depriving 


Xife  ot  Xorfc  J6&warb  fftt36eral&  151 

his  cousin,  as  well  as  two  other  officers  of  similar 
opinions,  of  their  commissions  ;  and  was  challenging 
the  Government  to  show  just  cause  for  the  severity 
displayed  towards  these  men,  of  one  of  whom,  being 
his  own  near  relation,  he  would  say,  from  personal 
knowledge,  c'  that  the  service  did  not  possess  a  more 
zealous,  meritorious,   and  promising  member." 

The  remonstrance  was  naturally  futile.  Lord 
Edward  remained — as  he  himself  had  foreseen  might 
be  the  case — scratched  out  of  the  army. 


CHAPTER    X 

1792— 1793 

Pamela  and  Lord  Edward's  Family — Her  Portrait — Effect 
upon  Lord  Edward  of  Caslnerment — Catholic  Convention 
— Scene  in  Parliament — Catholic  Relief  Bill — Lawlessness 
in  the  Country — Lord  Edward's  Isolation. 


M 


ADAME  DE  GENUS  has  distinctly  stated 
in  her  account  of  the  marriage  that  she  would 
by  no  means  have  permitted  the  angelical  Pamela — an 
angel,  by  the  way,  cast  in  very  terrestrial  mould — to 
enter  the  FitzGerald  family  without  the  consent  of 
the  Duchess  of  Leinster,  giving  it  to  be  understood 
that  Lord  Edward  had  gone  to  England  to  obtain 
that  consent,  and  that  it  was  not  until  his  return, 
successful,  that  the  wedding  took  place. 

Madame  de  Genlis  should  be  a  good  authority, 
but  there  are,  nevertheless,  grounds  for  believing  it 
at  least  possible  that  the  Duchess's  sanction  to  the 
arrangement  was  somewhat  belated  ;  and  that,  like 
a  wise  woman,  and  a  mother  who  wished  to  retain 
her  son,  she  had  set  herself  after  the  event  to  make 
the  best  of  the  inevitable.  Whether  her  consent  was 
given  before  or  after,  it  is  possible  that  the  recollection 
of  her  own  second  marriage,  in  which  there  must  have 

152 


Xife  of  3Loro  Eowaro  jFit3<3eralo  153 

been  an  element  of  romance,  strangely  associated  with 
the  excellent  Scotch  tutor,  and  which,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world,  must  have  appeared  in  the  light  of  a 
signal  triumph  of  sentiment  over  sense — it  is  possible 
that  this,  with  the  added  memory  of  all  the  good  years 
it  had  given  her,  may  have  inclined  her  to  take  a  more 
indulgent  view  than  she  might  otherwise  have  done 
of  her  son's  hasty  marriage. 

There  is,  at  any  rate,  no  symptom  of  any  interrup- 
tion in  the  tender  relationship  of  the  mother  and  son  ; 
and  Lord  Edward,  writing  to  thank  the  Duchess 
for  the  letter  in  which  she  had  evidently  bestowed 
her  blessing  upon  the  match,  told  her  that  she  had 
never  made  him  so  happy. 

"  I  cannot  tell  you,"  he  added,  "  how  strongly  my 
little  wife  feels  it.  .  .  .  You  must  love  her — she  wants 
to  be  loved." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Pamela  did  want  to  be 
loved.  It  was  a  want  which  she  felt  all  her  life  ;  and 
which,  it  may  be  added,  she  probably  took  every 
available  means  in  her  power — and  they  were  not 
few — to  satisfy.  In  the  case  of  women  as  well  as  men, 
though  she  was  not  fond  of  the  society  of  the  first, 
she  had  an  exaggerated  desire  to  please,  born  of  the 
innate  coquetry  which,  one  of  her  marked  features, 
lasted  on  even  to  old  age.  The  Due  de  la  Force, 
who  had  exceptional  opportunities  of  forming  a 
judgment,  when  asked  if,  at  the  age  of  sixty,  she  was 
still  a  coquette,  is  said  to  have  answered  with  a  laugh, 
"  More    than    ever  !  "    adding   that    when    she    found 


i54  Xife  ot  Xorfc  Efcwarfc  jfit3<Bet:alfc 

herself  deprived,  in  the  solitude  of  his  chateau,  of 
worthier  subjects  upon  which  to  exert  her  powers 
of  fascination,  she  was  wont  to  exercise  them  upon 
the  gardener. 

And  her  powers  of  fascination  were  beyond  question 
great.  Even  when  nearer  fifty  than  forty  we  hear 
of  her,  dressed  in  white  muslin  and  garlanded  with 
roses,  dancing  at  a  ball  and  ensnaring  the  heart  of  an 
English  lad  of  less  than  half  her  years.  And  if  such 
was  her  charm  at  an  age  when  most  women  resign 
themselves  to  be  lookers-on  at  life,  what  must  it  have 
been  in  the  spring-time  of  her  youth  ?  Lord  Edward, 
whatever  may  be  thought  of  her  in  other  respects,  had 
married  a  charming  wife — upon  this  head  at  least  there 
cannot  be  two  opinions.  Years  afterwards,  when  he 
had  long  been  in  his  grave,  and  Pamela,  a  poor  little 
waif  on  the  waves  of  life,  had  been  washed  to  and  fro 
at  their  will,  a  candid  friend,  giving  an  account  of  her, 
and  including  in  the  description  no  shortened  list  of 
her  faults  and  failings,  nevertheless  concluded  with 
the  acknowledgment  that  she  was,  in  spite  of  all, 
irresistible. 

As  one  reads  this  lady's  account  in  the  light  of  the 
facts  which  are  known  to  us,  one  acquires  a  clear 
enough  picture  of  the  fair  little  figure,  with  the  face 
which  so  took  the  fancy  of  Robert  Southey  that, 
lover  of  letters  as  he  was,  he  forgot  the  authoress  at 
her  side  ;  with  her  eyes  of  brun-vert,  her  pretty  brows 
and  dazzling  complexion,  the  mouth  the  worst  feature 
in  the  face  and  spoilt  by  a  habit  of  biting  her  lips  ; 


By      *  jH 

Me^^S^  (   -™  *:-         -  '  v^'    1 

n    '    uS 

*'Sfe_jH 

UPB  91  i  Jj 

/.^5s£y             Plr^E      ^K                  4§9flr  ' 

■Ol                      B^^MHl 

G.  Romney.  pinx. 


Pamela. 


page   154. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit30eralo  155 

capricious  and  variable,  assuming  by  turns  the  character 
of  a  lady  of  rank,  an  artist  of  mediocre  talent,  a  good 
and  graceful  child  ;  brilliant,  vain,  gentle  and  quarrel- 
some ;  recklessly  generous  as  to  money  ;  easily  amused, 
yet  subject  to  fits  of  melancholy  ;  slight,  legere,  yet 
always  charming, — such  was  the  child  of  the  French 
sailor  and  the  Canadian  mother,  and  the  daughter-in-law 
presented  to  the  Duchess  of  Leinster  by  Lord  Edward. 

Noblesse  oblige.  Whatever  may  have  been  her 
secret  sentiments  as  to  her  son's  choice,  his  mother 
would  seem  to  have  kept  them  to  herself,  and  not 
to  have  taken  the  world  into  her  confidence.  But  the 
situation  must  have  been  a  difficult  one  for  all  parties  ; 
though,  during  Lord  Edward's  lifetime  at  least, 
those  concerned  seem  to  have  come  well  out  of  it. 
Lady  Sarah  Napier  in  particular — who  had  perhaps 
the  fellow-feeling  for  her  new  niece  which,  despite  the 
common  belief  to  the  contrary,  one  woman  of  excep- 
tional beauty  sometimes  entertains  for  another — testified 
a  marked  admiration  and  liking  for  her  nephew's 
wife. 

"  I  never  saw  such  a  sweet,  little,  engaging,  bewitch- 
ing creature  as  Lady  Edward  is,"  she  wrote  a  few 
weeks  after  the  marriage,  "  and  childish  to  a  degree 
with  the  greatest  sense.  ...  I  am  sure  she  is  not  vile 
Egalite's  child  ;  it's  impossible." 

In  the  first  freshness  of  her  grief  after  the  final 
catastrophe,  the  Duchess  also  expressed  herself  in  the 
warmest  terms  with  regard  to  the  "  dear  little  interest- 
ing Pamela,  who  must  ever  be  an  object  dear,  precious, 


156  %ifc  of  Xoro  Bowaco  tfitscSeralo 

and  sacred  to  all  our  hearts,"  adding  that  she  was  a 
charming  creature,  and  the  more  her  real  character 
was  known,  the  more  it  was  esteemed  and  loved ; 
"  but  even  were  she  not  so,  he  adored  her :  he  is  gone  ! 
This  is  an  indissoluble  chain  that  must  ever  bind 
her  to  our  hearts." 

It  is  probably  the  last  sentence  which  gives  the  key 
to  the  rest.  But  it  is  not  only  in  the  case  of  Pamela 
that  the  links  of  such  indissoluble  chains  have  fallen 
asunder  under  the  inexorable  action  of  time.  After 
her  first  few  months  of  widowhood  Pamela  and  her 
husband's  family  would  seem  to  have  little  to  do  with 
one  another  ;  the  incongruous  elements  brought  together 
by  accident  had  once  more  parted. 

In  Ireland  itself  and  in  Dublin  society  Pamela  was 
never  popular  ;  a  fact  to  which  Lady  Sarah  Napier 
is  found  adverting  in  a  letter  written  from  Ireland 
shortly  after  her  nephew's  death  to  her  brother  the 
Duke  of  Richmond,  who  had  given  shelter  to  the 
new-made  widow  at  Goodwood,  and  whose  kindness — 
of  which  his  "sister  is  warmly  sensible — is  reported, 
though  on  doubtful  authority,  to  have  gone  so  far 
as,  later  on,  to  have  included  an  offer  of  marriage. 
It  is  probable  enough,  for  the  rest,  that  the  misliking 
was  mutual  ;  and  it  is  certain  that  when  at  liberty  to 
choose  her  own  place  of  abode,  Pamela  displayed 
no  disposition  to  fix  it  in   her  husband's  country. 

For  the  present,  however,  her  home  was  to  be 
there  ;  and  after  a  visit  of  three  weeks  to  the  Duchess 
in    England,    the    two    proceeded   to  Dublin,  whither 


Xtfe  of  Xovo  Eowaro  3flt50etalO  157 

Lord  Edward  was  recalled  by  his  Parliamentary 
duties. 

The  companion  with  whom  he  had  provided  himself 
will  no  doubt  have  done  much  on  this  occasion  to 
reconcile  him  to  the  necessary  absence  from  his  family  ; 
and  there  is  a  pleasant  glimpse  to  be  caught  of  him 
about  this  time,  driving  his  wife  through  the  streets 
of  Dublin  in  a  high  phaeton,  she  beautiful,  he  re- 
taining his  boyish  looks,  wearing  a  green  silk  hand- 
kerchief, and  frankly  delighted  with  the  reception 
accorded  by  the  people  to  himself-  and  his  bride. 

On  other  occasions  it  is  narrated  by  a  contemporary 
that,  retaining  something  of  boyhood  besides  his 
looks,  he  discarded,  in  honour  of  the  principles  of 
the  Revolution,  every  symptom  of  superiority  in 
point  of  dress  ;  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  take  his 
wife,  however  wet  and  muddy  the  weather,  through 
the  streets  on  foot,  rather  than  indulge  in  the  luxury 
of  a  carriage.  Whether  or  not  Pamela  altogether 
approved  of  this  object-lesson  in  equality  does  not 
transpire  ;  one  would,  however,  imagine  that  the 
method  of  propitiating  public  sentiment  to  which 
Madame  de  Genlis  had  had  recourse,  in  sending  her 
beautiful  foster-daughter  to  drive  through  Paris  with 
the  popular  Orleans  liveries,  would  have  been  more 
to  her  taste. 

Lord  Edward,  in  attention  to  details  such  as  these, 
displays  the  enthusiasm  of  a  proselyte.  He  was, 
in  truth,  rehearsing  a  fresh  part.  It  was  one, 
partly     at    least,    thrust    upon    him     by    the    English 


158  Xife  of  OLoro  Eowaro  ffit3<Beralo 

Government.  In  a  sorrowful  review  of  the  past,  his 
mother  was  accustomed  in  later  days  to  date  the 
misfortunes  by  which  he  was  overtaken  from  his 
summary  dismissal  from  the  army,  declaring  that 
that  event  had  left  a  deep  and  indelible  impression 
on  his  mind,  and  that  a  sentence  of  death,  to  a  man 
of  his  spirit,  would  have  been  in  comparison  an  act 
of  mercy.  Yet,  while  holding  this  as  her  own  view, 
and  possibly  finding  consolation  in  thus  ascribing  to 
others  the  responsibility  for  the  disasters  which  had 
followed,  she  was  just  enough  to  add  that  he  had 
never  himself  admitted  that  the  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment had  exercised  any  influence  upon  his  conduct. 

Looking  at  the  matter  impartially,  it  is  possible 
that  both  were  in  a  measure  right.  The  step  taken 
by  the  authorities — perfectly  justifiable  under  the 
circumstances  and  from  their  point  of  view — while 
in  no  way  affecting  his  convictions,  may,  likely  enough, 
have  burnt  in  upon  him  the  importance  of  principles 
originally  perhaps  adopted  after  a  light-hearted  and 
boyish  fashion,  and  of  which  the  full  logical  signifi- 
cance might  have  escaped  him  had  not  his  attention 
been  directed  to  it  by  the  course  pursued  by  a 
Government  whose  special  creative  talent  appeared 
to  lie  in  making  rebels.  By  this  means  the  creed 
which  might  otherwise  have  remained — as  how  many 
creeds  do — a  sleeping  partner  in  the  business  of 
life  was  transformed  into  a  practical,  working  faith, 
dictating  his  conduct  and  ruling  his  actions.  We  are 
apt    to    prize    a    possession    by    what    it    has    cost  us. 


%\U  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfitscSeralo  159 

He  had  been  proud  of  his  profession,  and  to  find 
himself  suddenly  thrust  out  of  it  would  naturally 
accentuate  the  importance  of  the  cause  in  which  it 
had  been  forfeited. 

Had  he  been  disposed  to  overlook  that  importance, 
affairs  in  Ireland  were  not  likely  to  allow  him  to  do 
so.  Much  had  taken  place  there  whilst  he  had  been 
engaged  abroad  in  getting  himself  cashiered  and 
married  ;  and  amongst  the  most  notable  events  of  the 
past  months  had  been  the  meeting  of  the  Catholic 
Convention  in  Dublin. 

The  summoning  of  an  assembly  to  consist  of 
delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  had  not 
only  marked  a  fresh  departure  on  the  part  of  the 
Catholic  population,  a  new  stage  in  their  agitation, 
and  a  strengthened  determination  to  push  their  claims, 
but  had  also  been  the  signal  for  an  outburst  of  that 
smouldering  religious  animosity  on  the  part  of  the 
dominant  faction  which  it  was  always  the  interest  of 
the  Government  to  keep  alive. 

The  Presbyterians  of  the  north  remained  indeed 
undismayed  and  staunch  to  their  new  alliance  with  the 
Catholics  ;  and  the  United  Irishmen  only  abstained 
from  sending  a  deputation  to  the  Convention  because 
such  a  proceeding  was  judged  inexpedient  by  those 
who  were  responsible  for  its  management  ;  but  the 
partisans  of  the  Protestant  Establishment  and  the 
upholders  of  religious  and  political  monopoly  took 
fright  at  once.  Meetings  were  held  in  various  parts 
of  the   country,  at  which   violent  language  was   used, 


160  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffit3<Beralo 

pledging  the  speakers  to  maintain,  against  no  matter 
what  authority,  a  Protestant  King,  a  Protestant  Parlia- 
ment, a  Protestant  hierarchy,  and  Protestant  electors 
and  government,  in  connection  with  the  Protestant 
realm  of  England. 

The  public  excitement  was  sedulously  fostered  and 
encouraged  by  Government  ;  and,  according  to  Richard 
Burke,  every  calumny  which  bigotry  and  civil  war  had 
engendered  in  former  ages  was  studiously  revived  by 
those  in  authority.  Whether  or  not  the  state  of 
public  sentiment  was,  purposely  or  otherwise,  exagger- 
ated by  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord  Westmorland, 
himself  an  uncompromising  opponent  of  the  Catholic 
claims,  in  the  accounts  forwarded  by  him  to  England, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  considerable  alarm  actually 
did  prevail  in  the  country.  The  virulence  of  the 
hostility  displayed  towards  the  Catholics  is  the  more 
remarkable  owing  to  the  fact  that  there  had  been,  up 
to  this  time,  a  singular  absence  of  disaffection  on  their 
part,  together  with,  so  far  as  the  priesthood  and  upper 
classes  were  concerned,  a  distaste  for  the  principles  of 
the  Revolution  presenting  a  marked  contrast  to  the 
enthusiasm  excited  by  it  in  other  quarters. 

On  December  3rd  the  Catholic  Convention  had 
met ;  nor  had  it  lost  any  time  in  proceeding  to 
business.  The  petition  presented  by  the  Catholics  to 
the  Irish  Parliament  during  the  preceding  session  had 
been  allowed  to  lie  upon  the  table  and  had  then  been 
rejected.  In  the  case  of  that  now  drawn  up,  setting 
forth  the   grievances   of  the   Catholic   population   and 


Xife  of  %ovb  Eowaro  3Fit3<3era^  161 

commending  to  the  King  the  consideration  of  their 
situation,  the  step  was  taken  of  ignoring  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  and  the  Irish  Government — their  recog- 
nised foes  — and  of  sending  their  petition  by  the  hands 
of  delegates  of  their  own  to  head-quarters. 

With  the  Protestant  Wolfe  Tone  acting  as  secretary, 
the  five  chosen  delegates  proceeded  to  execute  their 
mission,  receiving  an  ovation  at  Belfast  on  their  way, 
and  delivering  the  petition  to  the  King  in  person,  by 
whom  it  was  graciously  received.  When  Parliament 
reassembled  in  January,  1793,  it  was  found  that  a 
marked  change  had  taken  place  in  the  tone  adopted 
by  the  Government,  the  spirit  of  conciliation  which 
was  at  once  apparent  being  due  partly,  no  doubt,  to 
the  recent  French  victories,  but  partly  to  the  condition 
of  Ireland  itself. 

Side  by  side  with  the  agitation  for  Catholic  en- 
franchisement had  gone  a  demand  for  the  reform 
of  a  Parliament  in  which,  out  of  three  hundred 
members,  one  hundred  and  ten  were  either  placemen 
or  pensioners,  and  of  a  system  of  Government  character- 
ised by  Grattan  as  "  a  rank  and  vile  and  simple  and 
absolute  Government,  rendered  so  by  means  that 
make  every  part  of  it  vicious  and  abominable." 

A  new  military  movement  had  been  initiated,  and 
a  National  Guard  on  the  French  pattern  had  been 
organised  in  Dublin  by  the  popular  leaders,  bearing 
as  its  emblem  the  harp,  surmounted,  in  place  of  the 
crown,  by  the  cap  of  liberty — a  defiance  much  regretted 
by  Grattan.     It  was,  however,  no  longer  in  the  power 

11 


i62  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3<Beralo 

of  the  Whig  Parliamentary  party  to  direct  the  agitation 
or  to  fix  its  limits.  The  Volunteers,  too,  had  passed 
beyond  the  control  of  Lord  Charlemont,  still  their 
nominal  chief.  They  not  only  declined  to  perform 
their  annual  parade  at  the  statue  of  William  III.,  but 
discarded  their  orange  badges,  and  even  in  some 
cases  replaced  them  by  the  national  green. 

In  connection  with  this  new  "  National  Battalion " 
occurred  a  scene  too  characteristic  of  the  chief  actor 
in  it  to  be  omitted  here  ;  more  than  a  suspicion  of 
laughter  running  through  what  was,  nevertheless,  to 
him  as  to  others,  a  serious  matter. 

Notwithstanding  the  hopes  which  the  opening  pro- 
ceedings of  Parliament  had  been  calculated  to  inspire, 
the  House  had  scarcely  been  sitting  three  weeks  before 
Lord  Edward  had  occasion  to  make  the  protest  which 
has  been  always  remembered  by  his  countrymen. 

In  the  month  of  December  the  newly  organised 
military  body  had  issued  summons  to  its  members  to 
meet  and  parade  ;  but  on  the  day  preceding  that  on 
which  the  demonstration  was  to  have  taken  place, 
a  proclamation  of  the  Government  forbade  it.  It 
was  upon  a  motion,  taking  the  shape  of  an  address 
to  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  approving  of  this  proclamation 
and  intended  to  extend  the  prohibition  it  had  contained 
to  other  meetings  of  a  like  character,  that  Lord 
Edward  stood  up,  not  only  in  opposition  to  the 
Government,  but  to  many  members  of  his  own 
party,  including  Grattan,  to  give  "  his  most  hearty 
disapprobation"    to    the    proposed    address;    "for    I 


Xite  of  Xoro  Eowavo  jfit3Geralo  163 

do  think,"  he  added,  "  that  the  Lord  Lieutenant  and 
the  majority  of  this  House  are  the  worst  subjects  the 
King  has." 

So  far  the  incident  rests  upon  the  authority  of  the 
Parliamentary  record.  At  this  stage,  however,  the 
House  was  cleared,  remaining  so  for  the  space  of  three 
hours  ;  during  which  time,  if  rumour  is  to  be  believed, 
the  only  apology  which  was  elicited  from  the  delinquent 
was  framed  in  terms  so  ambiguous  as,  not  unnaturally, 
to  leave  the  offended  dignity  of  the  assembly  unsatisfied. 

"  I  am  accused,"  the  culprit  is  reported  to  have  said, 
"of  having  declared  that  I  think  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
and  the  majority  of  this  House  the  worst  subjects  the 
King  has.     I  said  so,  'tis  true,  and  I'm  sorry  for  it." 

On  the  following  day,  again  summoned  to  the  Bar, 
he  appears  to  have  made  some  less  equivocal  excuse  ; 
and,  though  with  a  dissenting  minority  of  fifty-five, 
the  explanation  was  accepted. 

Three  or  four  days  later  the  Catholic  Relief  Bill, 
in  accordance  with  the  new  English  policy,  was  in- 
troduced ;  the  Irish  ministers  being  compelled  by 
the  London  authorities  to  give  their  unwilling  support 
to  a  measure  directly  opposed  to  all  the  articles  of 
their  political  faith. 

The  situation  had  changed  with  strange  rapidity. 
Only  the  previous  year  the  petition  presented  by  the 
Catholics  had  been  unconditionally  rejected  by  the 
Irish  Parliament.  Now,  in  little  more  than  five  weeks, 
the  present  Bill  had  practically  passed.  In  the  month 
of  April  it  received  the  royal  assent  ;  Catholics  were 


i64  %itc  ot  %ovb  Efcwaifc  jfit3<3eralfc 

admitted  to  the  franchise  on  equal  terms  with  their 
Protestant  fellow-subjects,  and  were  relieved  of  most 
of  the  disabilities  under  which  they  had  hitherto 
laboured. 

Yet  it  was,  in  fact,  but  a  very  incomplete  measure 
of  reform.  By  their  continued  exclusion  from  Parlia- 
ment, the  educated  and  wealthy  among  the  Catholics 
were  denied  participation  in  the  redress  accorded  to 
the  grievances  of  the  poorer  and  more  ignorant  classes  ; 
and  the  foundation  was  laid  for  the  long  period  of 
agitation  and  discontent  which  was  to  precede  com- 
plete emancipation.  How  far  the  more  acute  of  the 
party  of  which  Wolfe  Tone  was  one  of  the  ruling 
spirits  were  from  feeling  satisfied  with  the  concessions 
obtained  can  be  read  in  Tone's  own  words.  In 
his  opinion  the  Bill  had  the  radical  and  fundamental 
defect  that  it  perpetuated  distinctions  and,  in  conse- 
quence, disunion.  "  While  a  single  fibre  of  the  old 
penal  code,  that  cancer  in  the  bosom  of  the  country, 
is  permitted  to  exist,  the  mischief  is  but  suspended, 
not  removed,  the  principle  of  contamination  remains 
behind  and  propagates  itself.  Palliations  may,  for 
a  time,  keep  the  disease  at  bay,  but  a  sound  and 
firm  constitution  can  only  be  restored  by  total  ex- 
tirpation." 

As  far  as  it  went,  however,  the  Bill  was  a  signal 
triumph  to  the  popular  party,  and  was  regarded 
as  such,  alike  by  the  Ulster  Presbyterians  and  by 
those  who  more  immediately  profited  by  its  provisions. 
The  Catholic  Convention  was  dissolved,  with  a  parting 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowavo  jfit3(Bevalo  165 

exhortation  to  all  Catholics  to  unite  with  Protestants 
on  the  question,  still  almost  untouched,  of  Parlia- 
mentary reform,  and  general  satisfaction  prevailed.  It 
was,  nevertheless,  a  fact  significant  of  the  consciousness 
on  the  part  of  the  victors  that  the  concessions  granted 
had  been  the  result  of  necessity  rather  than  due  to 
any  more  generous  motive,  that  an  address  of  gratitude, 
effusive  and  cringing  in  tone,  which  had  been  clan- 
destinely prepared  and  secretly  presented  by  the 
Catholic  Bishops,  was  so  offensive  to  their  flocks  that 
it  is  said  that  their  action  put  an  end  for  the  time  to 
all  confidence  between  the  hierarchy  and  the  laity. 

The  boon  to  the  Catholics,  from  whatever  motives, 
had  been  granted.  One  sop  had  been  thrown  to  the 
wolves  who  were  threatening  the  Government  car. 
But  in  the  direction  of  reform  it  was  soon  evident 
that  no  step  was  to  be  taken.  A  change  had  come 
over  the  condition  of  public  affairs  since  the  meeting 
of  Parliament.  War  had  been  declared  with  France  ; 
and  the  revulsion  of  popular  feeling  in  England  which 
had  followed  upon  the  revolutionary  excesses  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Channel  had  been  marked  and 
extreme.  Public  sentiment  in  London  was  strongly 
excited  by  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.,  upon  which 
Wolfe  Tone  made  his  significant  comment,  "  I  am  sorry 
it  was  necessary."  The  theatres  were  closed,  the 
mob  clamoured  for  war,  and  mourning  was  worn  by 
the  entire  population,  including,  with  a  single  exception, 
the  whole  House  of  Commons.  All  this,  together 
with  the  condition  of  Ireland  itself,   had  emboldened 


1 66  xtfe  ot  Xorfc  Efcwarfc  ffft30eral& 

the  Government  to  abandon  much  of  the  tone  of 
conciliation  they  had  been  driven  to  adopt,  and  to 
introduce  fresh  and  stringent  measures  of  coercion. 

The  Irish  ministers  were,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
ready  and  eager  instruments  in  putting  into  force 
the  change  of  policy  on  the  part  of  their  masters 
at  home,  and  even  among  members  of  the  Opposition 
there  was  little  disposition  to  stand  out  against  the 
measures  proposed.  While  leaving  the  real  question 
of  substantial  reform  untouched,  certain  other  con- 
cessions had  been  granted,  with  regard  to  the  pension 
list,  hereditary  revenue,  and  placemen  in  Parliament ; 
and  the  confidence  engendered  by  the  late  attitude 
adopted  by  the  Government  combined  with  anti- 
revolutionary  spirit,  strong  amongst  all  parties  in  the 
House,  to  minimise  the  opposition  to  the  present 
coercive   measures. 

Besides  the  reasons  enumerated,  the  lawlessness 
which  was  gaining  ground  in  some  parts  of  the 
country  was  calculated  to  alarm  the  National  party 
itself.  With  the  decline  of  the  Volunteer  movement 
there  had  taken  place  a  revival  of  the  traditional 
feud  between  the  Catholics  and  Protestants  of  the 
North.  In  the  county  of  Armagh  especially  this 
hostility  had  developed  into  a  species  of  petty  war- 
fare, carried  on  between  the  Peep-o'-Day  Boys  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  Catholic  peasantry,  banded 
together  under  the  name  of  Defenders,  on  the 
other.  These  last  organisations  had,  moreover,  rapidly 
spread    to    other    districts,     where,    in    the    absence 


Xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowavo  jflt3(3ei:alo  167 

of  their  Protestant  foes,  they  assumed  the  character 
of  a  Catholic  peasant  association  designed  to  enforce 
the  redress  of  certain  practical  grievances,  notably  that 
of  tithes,  and  plainly  looking  to  violence  as  the 
surest  means  of  attaining  their  object.  Constitutional 
methods  of  agitation  were  fast  going  out  of  fashion. 

It  was  with  the  state  of  things  thus  summarised 
that  the  Government  was  setting  itself  to  cope  by 
means  of  enactments  of  increasing  severity.  In  his 
resistance  to  these  bills  it  not  unfrequently  chanced 
that  Lord  Edward,  the  solitary  representative  within 
the  House  of  the  opinions  which  prevailed  so  widely 
outside  its  walls,  stood  nearly  alone.  Thus  it  was 
almost  single-handed  that  he  opposed  the  Gunpowder 
Bill,  a  measure  chiefly  directed  against  the  Volunteers  ; 
while  with  regard  to  the  Convention  Act,  another 
coercive  measure,  he  formed,  this  time  associated  with 
Mr.  Grattan,  one  of  a  minority  of  twenty-seven. 

To  a  man  of  Lord  Edward's  temper,  with  nothing 
about  it  of  the  assertive  arrogance  or  noisy  self- 
sufficiency  of  the  vulgar  demagogue  bidding  for  the 
suffrages  of  the  crowd,  there  must  have  been  no 
little  pain  in  the  sense  of  isolation,  not  only  from 
his  natural  associates,  but  from  those  with  whom 
he  had  at  other  times  acted,  whose  devotion  to 
Ireland  and  to  her  cause  was  as  true  and  loyal  as 
his  own.  Yet  what  real  community  of  sentiment 
could  exist  between  the  man  whose  sympathies  were 
more  and  more  passionately  engaged  on  the  side  of 
liberty — liberty  as  interpreted  by  the  Revolution  and 


1 68  xife  of  Xoro  Eowaco  tflt3<3eralo 

its  principles — whose  only  hope  for  his  country  was 
becoming  gradually  connected  with  the  idea  of 
separation,  and  to  whom  England  was  more  and 
more  an  alien  and  tyrannical  power,  to  be  resisted 
if  needs  be  by  force, — what  cordiality  or  union  could 
there  be  between  such  a  man  as  this  and  statesmen 
like  Grattan,  who,  in  January,  1794,  while  declining 
to  enter  into  the  causes  of  the  war  which  England 
was  carrying  on  against  the  propagators  of  those  very 
revolutionary  principles,  professed  himself  to  have  only 
one  view  on  the  subject — namely,  that  Ireland  should 
be  guided  by  a  fixed,  steady,  and  unalterable  resolution 
to  stand  or  fall  with  Great  Britain  ? 


CHAPTER    XI 

!793— J794 

Social  Position  affected  by  Political  Differences — Married  Life 
■ — Pamela's  Apparent  Ignorance  of  Politics — Choice  of  a 
Home — Gardening — Birth  of  a  Son — Letters  to  the 
Duchess  of  Leinster — Forecasts  of  the  Future. 

IT  was  not   in   the   field  of  politics  alone   that  the 
dividing  line  which  separated  Lord  Edward  from 
his  surroundings  was  widening. 

"  My  differing  so  very  much  in  opinion,"  he  wrote 
to  his  mother,  "  with  the  people  that  one  is  unavoid- 
ably obliged  to  live  with  here  does  not  add  much,  as 
you  may  guess,  to  the  agreeableness  of  Dublin  society. 
But  I  have  followed  my  dear  mother's  advice,  and  do 
not  talk  much  on  the  subject,  and  when  I  do,  am  very 
cool.  It  certainly  is  the  best  way  ;  but  all  my 
prudence  does  not  hinder  all  sorts  of  stories  being 
made  about  both  my  wife  and  me,  some  of  which,  I 
am  afraid,  have  frightened  you,  dearest  mother.  It  is 
hard  that  when,  with  a  wish  to  avoid  disputing,  one 
sees  and  talks  only  to  a  few  people,  of  one's  own  way 
of  thinking,  we  are  at  once  all  set  down  as  a  nest  of 
traitors.  From  what  you  know  of  me  you  may  guess 
that  all  this  has  not  much  changed  my  opinions  ;  but 

169 


i7o         %ifc  of  Xoro  Bowaro  tftt3<Beralo 

I  keep  very  quiet,  do  not  go  out  much,  except  to  see 
my  wife  dance,  and — in  short,  keep  my  breath  to  cool 
my  porridge." 

With  his  family,  indeed,  the  cordiality  of  his  rela- 
tions remained  unimpaired.  Of  his  brother  the  Duke, 
who,  since  his  temporary  aberration,  had  continued 
staunch  to  the  more  moderate  section  of  the  National 
party,  he  went  so  far  as  to  say — with  a  touch  of 
fraternal  partiality — that  he  was  the  only  man  among 
the  leaders  of  the  Opposition  who  seemed  fair  and 
honest  and  not  frightened  ;  adding,  however,  that  as 
he  was  not  supported  by  the  rest  of  his  party,  and 
did  "not  approve  of  their  ways  of  thinking,  the  Duke 
intended  to  keep  quiet  and  out  of  the  business.  For 
his  aunt's  husband,  Mr.  Conolly,  he  entertained  an  in- 
dulgent and  tolerant  affection.  u  Conolly,"  he  observed, 
"  is  the  same  as  usual — both  ways  ;  but  determined 
not  to  support  Government.  .  .  .  He  concludes  all  his 
speeches  by  cursing  Presbyterians.  He  means  well 
and  honestly,  dear  fellow,  but  his  line  of  proceeding 
is  wrong." 

During  the  first  year  or  two  of  his  marriage 
even  his  family,  however,  always  counting  for  much  in 
his  life,  must  have  been  of  secondary  importance  ; 
and  politics,  though  a  disquieting  element  always 
present  in  the  background,  had  no  power  to  over- 
shadow the  brightness  of  his  home  life.  There  is  an 
indescribable  atmosphere  of  freshness  and  youth  and 
gaiety  about  the  account  he  gives  of  that  home  to  his 
mother.     It  is  like  an  idyll  of  peace  and  sunshine,  to 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eovvaro  tftt3<Seralo  171 

which  the  catastrophe  which  was  to  close  it — now  so 
near  at  hand — lends  a  poignant  touch  of  pathos. 

Lord  Edward,  it  is  probable  enough,  was  one  of  those 
men  who,  from  one  cause  or  another,  keep  their  public 
and  private  lives  in  great  measure  apart ;  nor  was  a 
little  fair-weather  sailor  like  Pamela  the  confidant  to 
whom  he  would  be  disposed  to  point  out  the  chances 
of  the  gathering  storm.  Life  had  not  been  without 
its  discipline,  gently  as  he  had  met  it,  and  his  dissocia- 
tion in  point  of  views  from  those  he  loved  best  would 
have  already  taught  him  the  lesson  of  silence  where 
opinions  clashed.  Even  with  regard  to  his  mother 
he  was  gradually  learning  to  be  reticent  as  to  what 
it  might  trouble  her  to  know.  "  I  won't  bore  you 
any  more  with  politics,"  he  says  in  one  of  his 
letters,  "  as  I  know  you  don't  like  them."  The 
Duchess,  as  well  she  might,  was  probably  growing  less 
and  less  fond  of  them  ;  and  in  Pamela's  case,  in- 
capable of  reflection  as  Madame  de  Genlis  allowed 
her  to  be,  the  very  lightness  of  her  character,  not 
without  its  charm  to  a  man  of  Lord  Edward's 
temperament,  would  have  facilitated  the  separation  of 
public  and  domestic  interests.  Political  women  were 
rare  at  the  time,  at  least  in  Ireland,  and  he  was  not 
likely  to  desire  that  his  wife  should  be  one  of  them. 

It  is  true  that  a  description  given  by  a  man  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  the  FitzGeralds  1  in  the  darker 
days  which  were  approaching  conveys  a  different 
impression.  Ireland,  according  to  this  account,  was 
1  See  Teeling's  Personal  Narrative. 


172  Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  ffit3(Beralo 

Pamela's  constant  theme,  and  her  husband's  glory 
the  darling  object  of  her  ambition  ;  whilst,  when 
anxiety  for  his  safety  got  the  upper  hand,  she  would 
entreat,  in  her  sweet  foreign  voice  and  broken  English, 
his  friends  to  take  care  of  him.  "  You  are  all  good 
Irish,"  she  would  tell  them  on  these  occasions, 
"  Irish  are  all  good  and  brave  ;  and  Edward  is  Irish 
— your  Edward  and  my  Edward." 

It  may  be  true  that  when  the  crisis  was  obviously  at 
hand,  when  he  was  committed  beyond  recall  to  the 
perilous  course  he  was  pursuing,  and  when  the  danger 
attaching  to  it  could  no  longer  be  ignored,  she  ceased  to 
avoid  a  subject  which  could  not  but  for  the  time  throw 
all  others  into  the  shade.  It  would  have  been  strange 
if,  devoted  to  her  husband  as  there  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  that  she  was,  it  should  have  been  otherwise. 
But  from  her  own  account,  given  at  an  earlier  date, 
it  is  no  less  clear  that  while  the  avoidance  of  them  was 
possible,  she  preferred  to  keep  herself  apart  from 
politics  ;  electing,  with  a  shrewd  instinct  of  prudence 
which  does  more  credit  to  her  head  than  to  her 
heart,  to  remain  in  ignorance  of  the  schemes  in 
which  her  husband  was  implicated. 

"  I  perceived,"  says  Madame  de  Genlis,  describing 
her  meeting  with  the  FitzGeralds  at  Hamburg  some 
three  and  a  half  years  after  their  marriage — "  I  perceived 
that  Lord  Edward  had  imbibed  very  exaggerated 
views  concerning  political  liberty,  and  was  very  hostile 
to  his  own  Government.  I  was  afraid  that  he  was 
embarking    in    hazardous    enterprises,    and    spoke    to 


%itc  of  Xoro  JEbwavb  tftt3<Seral&  173 

Pamela  to  advise  her  to  use  her  influence  over  him 
to  dissuade  him  from  them,  when  she  made  me 
an  answer  worthy  of  remembrance.  She  told  me 
that  she  had  resolved  never  to  ask  him  a  single 
question  relative  to  his  affairs,  for  two  different 
reasons :  first,  because  she  would  have  no  influence 
over  him  upon  such  a  subject  ;  and  secondly,  in 
order  that  if  his  enterprises  were  unfortunate,  and 
she  were  examined  before  a  court  of  justice,  she  might 
be  able  to  swear  on  the  Gospel  that  she  knew  nothing 
about  his  affairs,  and  would  therefore  be  exposed  to 
neither  of  the  shocking  alternatives  of  bearing  witness 
against  him  or  of  swearing  a  false  oath." 

Men  marry  for  different  reasons.  If  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  Lord  Edward  had  gained,  in  his 
wife,  a  comrade  for  the  more  serious  business  of 
life,  he  had  at  least  acquired  a  charming  playmate 
for  its  lighter  hours  ;  nor  does  the  record  of  the 
halcyon  days  which  followed  their  marriage  contain 
any  indication  of  a  sense  on  his  part  of  anything 
lacking. 

The  first  question  by  which  they  had  been  con- 
fronted on  their  arrival  in  Ireland  was  the  choice  of 
a  home.  On  Lord  Edward's  own  small  estate, 
Kilrush,  there  appears  to  have  been  no  available 
house  ;  and  until  the  difficult  matter  of  the  selection 
of  a  permanent  residence  should  be  settled,  their  time 
was  divided  between  Dublin  and  Frescati,  now  vacated 
by  the  Duchess  of  Leinster.  Of  this  place,  so  long 
her   home,    it   appears    that    Lord    Westmorland    had 


i74  lite  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fft3<Beralo 

entertained  the  idea  of  becoming  the  tenant  ;  since 
a  year  later  Lord  Edward,  who  had,  as  he  expressed 
it,  got  an  under-gardener  to  help  Tim — the  said 
under-gardener  being  himself — gave  up  his  labours 
in  disgust,  reflecting  that  they  would  only  benefit 
"  that  vile  Lord  W.,  and  the  aide-de-camps,  chaplains, 
and  all  such  followers  of  a  Lord  Lieutenant." 

For  a  year,  however,  Frescati  continued  to  be 
available  as  a  place  of  resort  whenever  Dublin  or 
Dublin  society  proved  wearisome.  Lord  Edward  and 
his  wife  were  meantime  weighing  the  rival  merits 
of  the  various  residences  which  were  competing  for 
the  honour  of  becoming  their  permanent  home. 

A  small  house  in  the  county  of  Wicklow,  in  the 
midst  of  beautiful  country,  and  offering  the  advantages 
of  trees  and  sea  and  rocks,  presented  at  first  most 
attractions.  But  alternatives  were  not  wanting. 
Leinster  Lodge  was  at  their  service  ;  and  Mr. 
Conolly,  to  whose  trimming  policy  Lord  Edward 
had  adverted,  was  desirous  of  presenting  a  small 
house  possessed  by  him  at  Kildare,  ready  furnished 
for  use,  to  his  wife's  favourite  nephew. 

Lord  Edward,  hesitating  to  accept  a  gift  of  such 
magnitude,  also  confessed  that  Wicklow  offered  other 
advantages  beside  those  of  beauty  over  either  Kildare 
or  Leinster  Lodge. 

"  I  own,"  he  said  impatiently,  "  I  like  not  to 
be  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald,  '  the  County  of  Kildare 
member,' — to  be  bored  with  '  this  one  is  your 
brother's     friend,'    '  That    man     voted    against    him.' 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowarb  jfit3<3eralo  175 

I  am  a  little  ashamed  when  I  reason  and  say  to 
myself  Leinster  Lodge  would  be  the  most  profitable. 
Ninety  persons  out  of  a  hundred  would  choose  it, 
and  be  delighted  to  get  it.  It  is,  to  be  sure,  in  a 
good  country  ;  plentiful,  affords  everything  a  person 
wants  ;  but  I  do  like  mountains  and  rocks,  and  pretty 
views  and  pretty  hedges  and  pretty  cabins — ay,  and 
a  pleasanter  people." 

It  was  more  than  a  year  before  it  was  finally  decided 
to  accept  Mr.  Conolly's  offer  of  Kildare  Lodge,  and 
in  the  meantime  life  went  on  pleasantly  at  Frescati. 
There  was  no  time  for  writing  letters,  so  he  tells 
his  mother  ;  it  was  all  occupied  by  talk,  and  the  day 
was  over  before  they  knew  where  they  were.  Pamela 
had  taken  a  fit  of  growing — was  she,  after  all,  right, 
and  Madame  de  Genlis  wrong,  and  had  Lord  Edward 
married  a  wife  of  fifteen  ?  She  dressed  flower-pots 
besides,  and  worked  at  her  frame,  while  the  birds 
sang  and  the  windows  stood  open  and  the  house  was 
full  of  the  scent  of  flowers,  and  Lord  Edward  sat 
in  the  bay  window  writing  to  his  dearest  mother, 
with  her  last  dear  letter  to  his  wife  before  him, 
"  so  you  may  guess  how  I  love  you  at  this  moment." 

Picture  after  picture  gives  the  same  description  of 
the  life  that  went  on  at  quiet  Frescati,  as  if  no  such 
things  as  politics  and  fierce  clashing  passions  existed. 

"  I  am  amusing  myself  dressing  the  little  beds  about 
the  house.  .  .  .  The  little  mound  of  earth  that  is 
round  the  bays  and  myrtle  before  the  house  I  have 
planted  with  tufts  of  gentianellas  and    primroses   and 


176  %itc  ot  %ott>  JEowarfc  tfit3<Beralo 

lily  of  the  valley,  and  they  look  beautiful,  peeping 
out  of  the  dark  evergreen  :  close  to  the  root  of  the 
great  elm  I   have  put  a  patch  of  lily  of  the   valley." 

So  the  letter  proceeds,  with  the  trivial  details  that 
go  to  complete  the  picture,  and  the  fond  personalities 
of  perfect  familiarity.  There  is  to  be  a  meeting  at 
Malvern  soon,  but  not  yet,  and  a  sketch  of  the 
Duchess  herself  is  introduced,  tenderly  touched  in. 
He  wants  to  be  with  her,  but  particularly  in  the 
country.  u  I  long  for  a  little  walk  with  you,  leaning 
on  me,  or  to  have  a  long  talk  with  you,  sitting  out 
in  some  pretty  spot,  of  a  fine  day,  with  your  long 
cane  in  your  hand,  working  at  some  little  weed  at 
your  feet,  and  looking  down,  talking  all  the  time. 
I  won't  go  on  in  this  way,  for  I  should  want  to  set 
out  directly,  and  that  cannot  be."  So  it  goes  on, 
till  love  from  "  the  dear  little  pale  pretty  wife  " 
(Pamela  had  not  been  well),  ends  the  letter  of  the 
future  leader  of  a  conspiracy  which  might,  but  for 
his  death — such  is  the  opinion  of  one  well  qualified 
to  pronounce  upon  the  subject l — have  involved  the 
greater  part  of  Ireland  in  bloodshed.  Close  upon 
thirty  as  he  was,  he  was  still  a  boy  at  heart,  with 
not  a  little  of  the  winning  grace  of  childhood,  the 
childhood  that  to  some  favoured  natures  adheres 
through    life,  clinging  round  him. 

It  was  not  till  the  summer  of  1794  that  the 
household  was  finally  established  in  the  cottage  given 
by   Mr.    Conolly.     It  was    in   every  way  conveniently 

1  W.  E.  H.  Lecky. 


Xife  of  OLoro  JEowaro  tfit3(5eralo  177 

situated,  within  easy  distance  of  Dublin,  and  not  more 
than  six  miles  from  Lord  Edward's  own  estate,  across 
the  Curragh — a  vicinity  which  had  perhaps  suggested 
to  him  the  plan  he  entertained  of  turning  farmer  on 
his  own  land,  though  not  on  so  large  a  scale  that 
business  should  oblige  him  to  remain  too  long  absent 
from  his  mother.  The  small  dimensions  of  the  house 
was  another  of  its  advantages  in  his  eyes — he  liked  a 
small  place  so  much  better  than  a  large  one.  Alto- 
gether his  satisfaction  in  his  new  acquisition  seems  to 
have  been  complete  ;  and  writing  to  the  Duchess  in 
the  middle  of  the  business  of  settling  in,  and  describing 
the  house  in  detail,  he  tells  her  that  he  feels  "  pleasant, 
contented,  and  happy,  and  all  these  feelings  and  sights 
never  come  across  me  without  bringing  my  dearest 
mother  to  my  heart's  recollection." 

Pamela,  for  her  part,  is  already  planting  sweet  peas 
and  mignonette  ;  and  some  tiny  caps  are  lying,  with 
her  workbox,  on  the  table — preparations  for  the  "  little 
young  plant  that  is  coming." 

Lord  Edward's  eldest  son,  the  son  he  was  never 
to  see  grow  up,  was  born  in  Dublin  in  the  autumn 
of  1794.  It  had  been  decided  to  migrate  to  Leinster 
House  for  the  event — the  FitzGeralds  seem,  as  a 
family,  to  have  had  their  homes  much  in  common — 
but  it  was  not  without  regret  that  Kildare  Lodge  had 
been  temporarily  abandoned.  To  Lord  Edward's 
mind  his  brother's  great  house  was  melancholy  in 
comparison,  and  the  country  housemaid  cried  for  two 
days  when  brought  there,  and  thought  herself  in  a  prison. 

12 


178  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfft3<Sei:alo 

The  baby's  arrival  brightened  the  aspect  of  affairs, 
and  its  father  was  evidently  delighted  with  his  new 
possession.  Little  Edward  Fox  was  a  success  in  every 
way.  He  had  Pamela's  chin  and  his  father's  mouth 
and  nose,  and  blue  eyes  that  were  like  nobody  else's. 
At  present  it  was  indeed  difficult  to  form  any  opinion 
of  them,  as  they  were  seldom  open.  He  was,  at  all 
events,  everything  that  could  be  wished,  and  was  to 
have  for  sponsors  his  grandmother,  his  uncle  the  Duke, 
and  his  cousin  and  namesake,  Fox. 

Kildare  Lodge,  too,  was  rapidly  improving.  "  I 
think,"  wrote  Lord  Edward,  "  I  shall  pass  a  delightful 
winter  there.  ...  I  have  paled  in  my  little  flower 
garden  before  my  hall  door,  and  stuck  it  full  of  roses, 
sweetbrier,  honeysuckle,  and  Spanish  broom.  I  have 
got  all  my  beds  ready  for  my  flowers,  so  you  may 
guess  how  I  long  to  be  down  to  plant  them.  The 
little  fellow  will  be  a  great  addition  to  the  party.  I 
think,  when  I  am  down  there  with  Pam  and  child,  of 
a  blustery  evening,  with  a  good  turf  fire  and  a  pleasant 
book — coming  in,  after  seeing  my  poultry  put  up,  my 
garden  settled,  flower  beds  and  plants  covered  for  fear 
of  frost — the  place  looking  comfortable  and  taken  care 
of,  I  shall  be  as  happy  as  possible  ;  and  sure  I  am  I 
shall  regret  nothing  but  not  being  nearer  my  dearest 
mother,  and  her  not  being  of  the  party." 

The  realisation  of  this  forecast  of  a  home  full  of 
happiness  and  serene  content  was  destined  to  be  but  of 
short  duration. 


CHAPTER    XII 

1794— 1795 

Failing  Faith  in  Constitutional  Methods  of  Redress — Lord 
Edward's  Relations  with  the  Popular  Leaders — His  Quali- 
fications for  Leadership — Jackson's  Career  and  Death — 
Ministerial  Changes — Lord  Fitzwilliam's  Viceroyalty — 
And  Recall — Lord  Camden  succeeds  Him — Arthur 
O'Connor. 


WHATEVER  may  have  been  the  case  with 
regard  to  his  wife,  it  was  impossible  but  that 
the  subject  of  politics,  occupying  so  large  a  space  in 
his  life  and  one  of  growing  importance,  should  have 
found  at  times  its  way  into  Lord  Edward's  letters  to 
his  mother.  A  life-long  habit  of  confidence  is  not 
lightly  broken  ;  and  though  silence  on  a  topic  which 
must  have  been  an  ever  more  disturbing  one  to  the 
Duchess  may  have  been  gradually  facilitated  by  the 
increasing  infrequency  of  meetings  between  mother 
and  son,  his  allusions  to  the  future,  if  vague,  were 
not  without  significance. 

In  spite  of  the  rumours  which  began  to  circulate 
during  the  summer  of  1794  as  to  the  change  likely  to 
be  effected  in  Ireland  by  the  proposed  coalition  of 
the  Duke  of  Portland  and  the  more  moderate  Whigs 

179 


180  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3ftt3<3eralo 

with  the  Tory  ministry,  it  is  evident  that  Lord  Edward 
entertained  little  hope  of  substantial  benefit  to  Ireland 
to  be  obtained  from  any  English  party.  He  was 
anxious  that,  in  any  case,  his  brother  should  keep  clear 
of  the  Castle.  But  one  thing  at  least  was  now  certain 
— that,  whatever  might  be  the  course  the  Duke  saw 
fit  to  pursue,  the  views  formerly  entertained  by  Lord 
Edward  with  regard  to  his  own  duty,  as  occupying 
the  position  of  his  brother's  Parliamentary  nominee, 
had  undergone  a  radical  change. 

"  When  I  see  Leinster,"  he  wrote  to  his  mother, 
"  I  shall  soon  find  how  the  wind  sets  in  his  quarter. 
I  trust,  though,  he  will  be  stout,  and  have  nothing  to 
say  to  any  of  them.  I  know  if  he  goes  over,  I  shall 
not  go  with  him  ;  for  my  obstinacy  or  perseverance 
grows  stronger  every  day,  and  all  the  events  that  have 
passed,  and  are  passing,  but  convince  me  more  and 
more  that  these  two  countries  must  see  very  strong 
changes,  and  cannot  come  to  good  unless  they  do." 

It  was  evident  that  repeated  disappointments  had 
done  their  work  with  him,  as  with  the  nation  at  large. 
His  lingering  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  constitutional 
methods  of  obtaining  redress  for  the  grievances  of 
the  Irish  people  was  dying  out  during  the  months 
divided  between  the  more  satisfactory  occupation  of 
cultivating  his  flowers  and  that  of  making  passionate 
and  futile  endeavours  in  Parliament  to  stand  between 
the  people  and  the  governmental  system  of  oppression. 

As  early  as  January,  1794,  signs  were  apparent  of 
the    possibility    of    his    deciding    to    absent    himself 


Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  3fit3<3eralb  iSi 

from  debates  in  which  his  sole  part  could  be  to 
raise  an  impotent  protest  against  a  policy  equally 
abhorrent  to  him  whether  in  its  foreign  or 
domestic  aspect ;  and  although  it  was  not  until  more 
than  two  years  later  that  he  finally  determined  to  give 
up  Parliament  and  associated  himself  definitely  with 
the  United  Irishmen,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his 
opinions,  during  the  interval,  were  steadily  approxi- 
mating themselves  both  to  the  views  held  by  that 
organisation  and  to  the  methods  it  advocated  ;  while 
his  sympathies  had  long  been  engaged  on  the  side  of 
the  struggle  of  which  it  was  representative. 

With  regard  to  the  date  of  the  commencement  of 
a  personal  or  intimate  connection  on  his  part  with 
the  leaders  of  the  advanced  National  party,  it  is  difficult 
to  form  any  definite  conclusion.  The  slightness  of 
his  acquaintance  with  so  prominent  a  member  of  the 
United  Irish  Association  as  Wolfe  Tone,  who  remained 
in  Ireland  until  May,  1795,  would  seem  to  give  a 
direct  denial  to  the  existence  of  any  close  intercourse 
before  that  date  with  the  chiefs  of  the  organisation. 
At  the  same  time,  the  fact  that  a  French  emissary, 
sent  over  in  the  year  1793,  after  war  had  been  declared 
with  England,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the 
views  of  the  popular  Irish  leaders  and  proffering 
French  aid  towards  the  furtherance  of  their  objects, 
presented  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Lord  Edward, 
and  was  by  him  made  known  to  certain  prominent 
members  of  the  party,  goes  to  prove  that  he  was  on 
confidential  and  trusted  terms  with  the  men  who  were 


1 82  %\tc  of  Xoro  Eowarb  ffft3(Beralo 

readv,  if  necessary,  to  resort  to  physical  force.  It 
also  implies  that  he  himself,  if  not  yet  prepared  to 
take  an  active  share  in  the  extreme  step  of  entering 
upon  an  alliance  with  the  enemies  of  England,  was 
known  to  be  not  definitely  opposed  to  such  a  policy. 

Such  being  the  case,  it  is  a  curious  fact,  and  one 
which  seems  to  call  for  explanation,  that  whilst  more 
and  more  driven  into  the  camp  of  the  irreconcilables, 
so  far  as  views,  opinions,  and  sympathies  were  con- 
cerned, he  was  so  tardy  in  identifying  himself  with 
its  personal  representatives. 

Irrelevant  circumstances  have  often  more  to  do  with 
such  matters  than  is  commonly  imagined.  The  United 
Irish  movement  had  been  an  eminently  middle-class 
one.  Tone  was  the  son  of  a  coach-builder,  Emmet 
(who  had,  however,  not  yet  become  a  member  of  the 
association)  of  a  doctor,  the  father  of  the  two  Sheares 
was  a  banker  at  Cork,  Neilson's  a  dissenting  minister, 
Bond  was  a  woollen  draper.  It  was  inevitable  that 
between  these  men  and  Lord  Edward  there  should 
have  been  wanting  the  starting-point  of  natural  social 
intercourse,  and  that  a  certain  distance,  especially 
in  days  when  differences  of  birth  and  position  counted 
for  far  more  than  at  present,  should  have  separated 
him  from  them,  until  such  time  as  the  fusing  action 
of  a  supreme  and  absorbing  common  interest  obliter- 
ated all  adventitious  lines  of  division.  When  that 
day  came,  nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the 
absence  of  any  trace  of  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the 
earlier    leaders    of    the    movement    with     regard    to 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3(Beralo  183 

the  man  who  was  then  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
enterprise. 

Lord  Edward  has  been  called  a  weak  man.  In 
some  respects  the  charge  may  not  be  wholly  unfounded. 
But  in  estimating  his  character,  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  in  his  adoption  of  the  national  cause,  not 
as  it  was  understood  by  Grattan  and  his  friends,  not 
as  it  was  understood  by  the  brother  he  loved  and 
respected,  or  by  the  mother  he  adored,  but  as  it  was 
understood  by  men  to  whom  he  was  bound  by  nothing 
but  a  common  pity  for  the  wronged  and  the  oppressed, 
and  a  common  enthusiasm  for  the  rights  of  a  nation 
whose  grievances  were  crying  for  redress,  he  acted,  so 
far  as  party,  family,  and  class  were  concerned,  almost 
alone.  Singly  he  defied  their  traditions  and  identified 
himself  with  a  cause  in  which  he  had  everything  to 
lose  and  nothing  to  gain.  And  to  choose  such  a 
course  of  action  and  to  carry  it  through  with  con- 
sistent loyalty  is  not  altogether  the  act  of  a  weak 
man. 

Of  force  of  intellect,  or  of  that  strength  of 
will  which  consists  in  deciding,  calmly  and  dispassion- 
ately, after  a  review  of  all  contingencies  and  with  a 
full  appreciation  of  all  side  issues  and  each  possible 
result,  upon  the  course  to  be  pursued  and  in  steadily 
adhering  to  the  decision  thus  reached,  he  had 
probably  but  little.  But  a  strength  of  his  own  he 
did  possess — the  strength  that  belongs  to  a  great 
simplicity  and  to  a  perfect  rectitude,  to  a  single- 
minded   purpose,  to  a  disregard  of  side  issues  and  a 


1 84  Me  of  Xorb  JEowaro  jftt3($eralo 

total  absence  of  that  taint  of  self-interest  which  is 
so  fruitful  a  source  of  vacillation,  to  a  delicate  sense 
of  honour  and  of  the  value  of  a  pledge,  to  an 
absolute  loyalty  and  an  unflinching  courage.  His 
judgment  might  and  did  fail  ;  he  trusted  and  he 
was  betrayed  ;  his  estimates  of  character  were  un- 
reliable ;  he  was  undeniably  most  unsuited  for  the 
task  which  was  set  him  of  conducting  a  conspiracy 
to  a  successful  end.  But  there  are  different  qualities, 
each  possessing  in  warfare  a  value  of  its  own.  It 
is  said  that  towards  the  close  of  the  American  Civil 
War,  when  it  had  lasted  over  four  years,  the  veterans 
of  the  army,  whilst  they  had  become  past  masters  of 
most  of  the  branches  of  the  art  of  fighting,  had  lost  one 
accomplishment.  They  had  grown  so  adroit  in  availing 
themselves  of  every  shred  of  cover,  that  they  had 
lost  the  power  of  charging  ;  with  the  result  that  at 
Gettisburg  a  body  of  raw  recruits  made  a  gallant 
onslaught  while  the  seasoned  soldiers  remained  in  the 
background.  It  was  the  courage  of  the  recruit  which 
was,  to  the  end,  that  of  Lord  Edward.  The  mis- 
fortune was  that  the  equipment  of  the  private  in  the 
ranks  and  of  the  general  ought  not  to  be  the  same, 
and  that  the  gallantry  of  the  recruit  is  not  the 
wisdom  of  the  commander-in-chief. 

Again,  if  he  was  weak,  his  was  not  the  weakness 
which  sacrifices  a  duty  or  a  conviction,  knowingly, 
any  more  to  affection  than  to  fear.  Pamela,  as  we 
have  seen,  confessed  that  in  the  matter  of  his  public 
career   her  influence    counted   for  nothing.     Nor    had 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3(Beralo  185 

his  mother  power  to  withdraw  him  from  the  dangerous 
course  upon  which  he  had  embarked.  But  his  nature 
was  gentle  and  yielding  to  an  uncommon  degree, 
and  it  was  admitted  by  one  who  knew  and  loved 
him  l  that  he  might  be  led  to  concede  his  own  judg- 
ment to  inferior  counsels. 

"  The  only  measure,"  adds  the  same  writer,  "  which 
perhaps  he  was  ever  known  to  combat  with  the  most 
immovable  firmness,  in  spite  of  every  remonstrance 
and  the  kindest  solicitude  on  the  part  of  his  friends, 
was  on  the  expected  approach  of  an  awful  event,  when 
failure  was  ruin  and  success  more  than  doubtful. 
1  No,  gentlemen,'  said  he  ;  '  the  post  is  mine,  and 
no  man  must  dispute  it  with  me.  It  may  be  com- 
mitted to  abler  hands,  but  it  cannot  be  entrusted  to 
a  more  determined  heart.  I  know  the  heavy  responsi- 
bility which  awaits  me,  but  whether  I  perish  or 
triumph,  no  consideration  shall  induce  me  to  forego 
this  duty.'  " 

Writing  at  a  time  when  it  might  still  have  been 
desirable  to  avoid  entering  into  details,  no  further 
indication  is  given  by  the  narrator  of  the  nature  of  the 
enterprise  of  which  Lord  Edward  thus  refused  to 
relinquish  the  leadership.  Circumstances,  it  is  simply 
added,  changed,  and  the  proposed  measure  was 
abandoned. 

The  counter  accusation  of  obstinacy  has  been  brought 
against  Lord  Edward. 

"  I  knew  Lord  Edward  well,"  said  J.  C.  Beresford, 

1  Teeling. 


1 86  %ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt3(Beralo 

in  the  course  of  Emmet's  examination  before  the  Secret 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords,  in  the  autumn 
which  followed  his  death,  "  and  always  found  him  very- 
obstinate." 

"  I  knew  Lord  Edward  right  well,"  retorted  Emmet, 
"  and  have  done  a  great  deal  of  business  with  him  ; 
and  have  always  found  when  he  had  a  reliance  on  the 
integrity  of  the  person  he  acted  with,  he  was  one  of 
the  most  persuadable  men  alive,  but  if  he  thought  a 
man  meant  dishonestly  or  unfairly  by  him,  he  was  as 
obstinate  as  a  mule." 

It  was  perhaps  natural  that  Beresford  and  Emmet 
should  have  regarded  the  subject  of  their  criticism 
from  varying  points  of  view. 

To  sum  up.  There  was,  whatever  other  qualifications 
for  leadership  might  be  wanting  in  Lord  Edward 
FitzGerald,  one  possessed  by  him  to  a  marked 
degree.  He  was  absolutely  to  be  trusted.  Nor  is 
that  qualification  a  small  one. 

Returning  to  the  course  of  events,  it  has  been  seen 
that  he  had  as  yet  taken  no  definite  step  in  the  direction 
of  active  co-operation  with  the  party  of  extremists  ; 
nor  did  his  views,  so  far  as  his  biographer  was 
able  to  ascertain  them  from  those  who  had  been 
personally  acquainted  with  him  at  the  time,  yet  include 
total  separation.  Though  numbered  amongst  the 
men  who  had  incurred  the  suspicion  of  the  Govern- 
ment, he  does  not  appear  to  have  taken  any  share  in 
the  negotiations  set  on  foot  in  the  course  of  1794 
between     the     United     Irish     body    and     the    French 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  fftt3<Beralo  187 

Directory,  in  which  William    Jackson  acted  as  inter- 
mediary. 

As  the  first  serious  endeavour  to  establish  relations 
between  the  disaffected  Irish  and  the  French  Republic 
— an  undertaking  subsequently  brought  to  so  practical 
though  fruitless  an  issue,  and  in  which  Lord  Edward's 
own  part  was  a  prominent  one — this  preliminary  and 
abortive  attempt  deserves  further  mention  here. 

Jackson,  for  whom  it  ended  so  disastrously,  was 
an  Irish  Protestant  clergyman,  his  ecclesiastical  duties 
seeming,  however,  to  have  occupied  a  subordinate  place 
in  his  career.  He  had  passed  much  of  his  time  out  of 
Ireland  ;  and,  though  in  what  precise  capacity  does 
not  appear,  had  formed  for  some  years  one  of  the 
household  of  the  Duchess  of  Kingston.  In  the  absence 
of  more  precise  information,  the  letter  of  a  corre- 
spondent of  her  Grace,  enquiring  whether  her  "  female 

confidential  secretary  "    was  not    named  J n,    and 

adding  a  hope  that  she  might  never  find  herself 
without  benefit  of  clergy,  may  be  taken  as  pointing 
to  the  fact  that  his  duties  were  of  a  somewhat 
ambiguous  character. 

Drawn,  like  other  restless  spirits,  to  the  scene  of 
action,  Jackson  resorted  to  Paris  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution  ;  and  thence  proceeded,  as  emissary  of 
the  Republic,  to  Ireland.  The  sequel  to  his  mission 
presents  one  of  those  sordid  tragedies  of  which  the 
history  of  the  time  is  full.  Betrayed  by  a  confederate, 
he  was  arrested  and  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  was 
detained  for    a   year  while   his   trial    was   pending,   an 


1 88  Xife  of  Xoro  Bowaro  fftt30cralo 

interval  spent  by  him  in  composing,  probably  with  a 
view  to  the  propitiation  of  the  authorities,  a  refuta- 
tion of  Paine's  work  on  The  <tAge  of  Reason. 

One  imagines  him  to  have  been  an  intriguing 
adventurer,  of  no  high  or  admirable  type  ;  yet  there 
is  recorded  of  him  one  trait  not  wanting  in  courage 
and  generosity.  Unusual  lenity  having  been  shown 
him  during  his  captivity,  his  friends  had  obtained 
permission  to  visit  him  in  jail ;  and  on  one  occasion 
a  guest  had  remained  to  so  late  an  hour  that  on 
Jackson's  accompanying  him  at  length  to  the  place 
where  the  jailor  was  used  to  await  them,  the  man 
was  found  overcome  by  sleep,  his  keys  beside  him. 
"  Poor  fellow  !  "  observed  the  prisoner,  possessing 
himself  of  the  emblems  of  office.  "  Let  us  not  wake 
him — I  have  already  been  too  troublesome  to  him 
in  this  way." 

Ushering  his  friend  to  the  outer  door,  he  opened 
it  ;  then,  as  the  temptation  to  seize  the  opportunity 
of  making  good  his  own  escape  assailed  him,  he  stood 
hesitating.      But  not  for  long. 

"  I  could  do  it,"  he  said  ;  "  but  what  would  be  the 
consequences  to  you  and  to  the  poor  fellow  who 
has  been  so  kind  to  me  ? "  And,  locking  the  door 
once  more,  he  went  back  to  await  his  doom. 

It  is  a  significant  commentary  upon  the  man  and 
upon  the  opinion  entertained  of  him  by  his  friend, 
that  the  visitor,  aware  of  the  consequences  to  himself, 
should  he  be  convicted  of  having  aided  in  the  escape 
of  a  captive  in  confinement    on   a  charge  of  treason, 


lite  ot  %ovb  Efcwarfc  jfft3(Bevatt>  189 

felt  so  little  confidence  in  the  permanence  of  the 
impulse  of  generosity  by  which  Jackson  had  been 
actuated  that  he  remained  all  night  watching  the  jail, 
in  order  that,  should  the  prisoner  after  all  effect  his 
escape,  he  himself  might  fly  the  country. 

The  final  scene  is  a  ghastly  one. 

"  I  always  knew  he  was  a  coward,"  said  some  one 
contemptuously,  who,  meeting  him  on  his  way  at 
last  to  receive  sentence  of  death,  had  formed  his 
conclusions  from  what  he  had  seen  ;  "  and  I  find  I 
was  not  mistaken.     His  fears  have  made  him  sick." 

He  was  not  only  sick  ;  he  was  dying.  Unable 
to  face  his  certain  fate,  he  had  stolen  a  march  on 
his  judges  and  had  taken  poison.  The  account  of  the 
scene  in  court  reads  like  the  closing  act  of  a  tragedy. 
While  Curran  and  Ponsonby,  his  counsel,  were  raising 
technical  questions  of  illegality  in  the  attempt  to  arrest 
judgment,  the  prisoner  stood  in  the  dock,  scarcely 
able  to  keep  on  his  feet,  death  written  on  his  face. 
Before  sentence  could  be  pronounced,  he  fell  insensible 
to  the  ground.  Could  he  still  hear  ?  questioned 
Lord  Clonmel,  before  whom  the  case  had  been 
tried ;  and  on  being  answered  in  the  negative,  he 
deferred  pronouncing  sentence  of  death  on  a  man 
incapable  of  understanding  it.  But  that  sentence  had 
already  been  not  only  pronounced  elsewhere,  but 
executed  ;  and  presently  the  Sheriff  made  the 
announcement  of  the  prisoner's  escape.  So  ended 
Jackson's  mission  to  Ireland,  a  year  after  it  had 
begun. 


i9o  Xife  of  Xoro  lEowavo  tfit30enUo 

The  coercive  measures  of  the  Government  had 
meanwhile  done  their  work  in  at  least  driving  dis- 
affection underground,  and  the  United  Irish  Associa- 
tion, as  originally  formed,  had  practically  ceased  to 
exist.  It  reappeared  in  the  more  formidable  shape  of 
a  conspiracy,  organised,  with  elaborate  skill,  with  a 
view  to  eluding  the  observation  of  the  authorities. 
For  the  present,  however,  the  latter  congratulated 
themselves  upon  the  success  that  had  attended  the 
vigorous  measures  they  had  taken  to  suppress  disturb- 
ance, and  the  country  subsided  into  sullen  and  gloomy 
quiet. 

It  was  in  July,  1794,  that  the  expected  coalition  of 
the  moderate  Whigs  and  the  Tories  took  place,  and 
that  the  Duke  of  Portland,  Lord  Spencer,  Lord 
Fitzwilliam,  and  Mr.  Windham  were  admitted  into 
the  Cabinet.  In  December  followed  Lord  Westmor- 
land's recall — he  did  not,  after  all,  enjoy  the  fruits  of 
Lord  Edward's  labours  at  Frescati — and  on  January  4th 
Lord  Fitzwilliam  took  up  his  duties  as  Lord  Lieutenant 
in  Ireland. 

The  few  weeks  of  his  Viceroyalty  were  the  last 
gleams  of  sunlight  before  the  breaking  of  the  storm. 
Everywhere  hope  revived.  It  was  known  that  he 
was  in  favour  of  emancipation  and  reform  ;  rumours 
were  probably  abroad  of  the  letter  he  had  written 
to  Grattan  so  early  as  the  previous  August,  stating 
that  it  was  to  the  Irish  Liberal  leader  that,  in  coming 
to  Ireland,  he  should  look  for  assistance  in  his  labours 
on  her  behalf.     These  rumours   were    confirmed,   on 


Xife  ot  Xorfc  Efcwatfc  3fit30emlD  191 

the  meeting  of  Parliament,  by  the  presence,  on  the 
Treasury  Bench,  of  Grattan  himself,  the  two  Ponsonby 
brothers,  Curran,  Hardy,  and  Parnell.  Petitions 
poured  in  from  the  Catholics  ;  a  Bill  for  their  relief 
was  to  be  brought  in  without  delay  ;  and  the  repeal 
of  the  Dublin  Police  Act  was  to  be  moved. 

But  Lord  Fitzwilliam  had  exceeded  his  instructions. 
He  had  dismissed  Beresford,  the  Chief  Commissioner 
of  the  Revenue — called  the  King  of  Ireland — and  he 
was  negotiating  the  retirement  of  the  Attorney-General 
and  Solicitor-General,  with  the  object  of  making  way 
for  the  Ponsonbys.  To  remonstrances  from  head- 
quarters he  replied  by  a  demand  to  be  supported  in 
his  dismissal  of  Beresford,  or  else  recalled.  The  latter 
alternative  was  accepted  by  Pitt  ;  and  on  March  25  th 
he  quitted  Ireland,  not  three  months  after  his 
arrival,  amidst  signs  of  universal  mourning.  Five 
days  later  his  successor,  Lord  Camden,  had  arrived 
in  Dublin.  The  hopes  of  the  people  had  been 
excited  only  to  be  dashed  to  the  ground. 

Had  the  intention  of  Government  at  this  juncture 
been  that  to  which  Lord  Castlereagh's  words  pointed 
when,  in  the  course  of  McNevin's  examination  before 
the  Secret  Committee,  he  confessed  that  "  means 
were  taken  to  make  the  Irish  United  system  explode," 
no  course  of  action  could  have  been  better  calculated 
to  attain  that  object.  Popular  anticipation  had  been 
raised  to  fever  heat  only  to  find  itself  deceived  in  every 
hope  that  had  been  held  out.  It  was  no  wonder  if 
the  people  were  irritated  to  the  point  of  madness.     "  It 


192  Xife  ot  Xorfc  Bfcwarfc  jftt3<BeraR> 

has  been  said,"  cried  Grattan  a  little  later,  in  a  burst 
of  eloquent  denunciation — "  it  has  been  said  in  so 
many  words,  '  It  were  to  be  wished  that  they  would 
rebel.'  Good  God ! — wished  they  would  rebel  ! 
Here  is  the  system,  and  the  principle  of  the  system." 

The  Catholic  Emancipation  Bill,  which,  had  Lord 
Fitzwilliam  remained  in  office,  would  doubtless  have 
passed  without  difficulty,  was  thrown  out  ;  and  in 
June  the  eventful  session  came  to  an  end. 

In  the  meantime,  in  the  absence  of  information  on 
the  subject,  we  may  conclude  that  the  household  of 
Kildare  Lodge  went  on  as  before.  The  master 
of  the  house  continued  to  divide  his  days  between  the 
cultivation  of  his  flowers,  the  society  of  his  wife  and 
of  little  Edward  Fox — doubtless  an  increasingly  "  great 
addition  "  to  the  party — and  the  gradual  development 
of  the  political  convictions  which,  early  in  the  following 
year,  led  him  to  take  the  definite  step  of  associating 
himself  practically,  if  not  yet  formally,  with  the  United 
Irishmen. 

With  one  Parliamentary  colleague  he  had  by  this 
time  formed  a  close  intimacy.  This  was  with  Arthur 
O'Connor. 

Returned,  it  will  be  remembered,  to  Parliament 
in  the  year  1 791 ,  O'Connor  had  begun  his  political 
career  as  an  adherent  of  the  Castle,  and  with  praises 
of  Lord  Westmorland.  By  the  close  of  the  session 
of '95,  however,  his  opinions  had  undergone  so  radical 
a  change  that,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  views  of  his 
uncle,    he    made   a  brilliant    defence    of  the    Catholic 


/.  Dowling,  pinx. 


Photo,  by  Geoerhehan 


Arthur  O'Connor. 


page   192. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3<$eralo  193 

Emancipation  Bill  ;  conceiving  himself  in  consequence 
bound  in  honour  to  relinquish  the  seat  he  owed  to 
Lord  Longueville,  and  forfeiting  besides  a  property 
he  had  expected  to  inherit.  An  able  man,  and  not 
devoid  of  personal  attraction,  he  does  not  appear,  in 
spite  of  his  sacrifices  to  the  cause  he  had  adopted, 
to  have  been  wholly  liked,  or  altogether  trusted, 
by  his  new  comrades ;  while  he,  for  his  part,  is 
said  to  have  surveyed  with  supercilious  dislike  almost 
every  Irish  patriot  with  whom  he  was  brought 
into  contact. 

Educated  to  be  a  clergyman,  he  had  gone  so  far 
as  to  receive  deacon's  orders  ;  but  had  then  thrown 
up  the  ecclesiastical  career,  bringing  away  from  his 
apprenticeship  nothing  but  a  bitter  hostility  towards 
all  Churches  alike.  A  story  is  told  of  a  dinner  at 
the  FitzGeralds',  when  the  violence  of  the  invectives 
directed  by  him  against  hypocrisy,  superstition,  and 
finally  Christianity  itself,  unrestrained  by  the  presence 
of  his  hostess,  was  such  as  to  call  forth  the  indignant 
protest  of  a  noted  preacher,  who  chanced  to  be  his 
fellow-guest.  Waiting,  with  better  taste  than  the 
layman,  till  Pamela  should  have  left  the  room,  the 
priest  turned  to  Lord  Edward,  who  had  listened  to 
O'Connor  in  dissenting  silence.  "  My  lord,"  he 
began,  "  I  have  sat  in  silence  as  long  as  I  could  remain 
silent "  ;  and  it  is  added  that  in  the  denunciation 
which  followed  he  so  maintained  his  reputation  for 
eloquence  that  the  delinquent  was  reduced,  if  not  to 
penitence,  at  least  to  speechlessness. 

13 


i94  Xife  ot  Xorfc  Efcwavfc  jftt3<Beral& 

On  political  matters  O'Connor's  opinions  were 
moving  in  a  parallel  direction  to  Lord  Edward's  own, 
with  the  result  that,  at  a  slightly  earlier  date  than 
his  friend,  he  also  became  a  member  of  the  United 
Association. 

The  two  were  in  constant  intercourse,  and  it  was  in 
the  company  of  his  new  companion  that  an  occurrence 
took  place  to  which  the  undue  and  disproportionate 
importance  accorded  by  Lord  Edward's  biographers 
affords  a  signal  illustration  of  their  determination  to 
view  any  incident  connected  with  him,  of  no  matter 
how  slight  a  nature,  in  a  serious  light. 

The  story  is  well  known  which  recounts  how, 
riding  with  O'Connor  across  the  Curragh,  where  races 
were  going  on,  the  two  were  encountered  by  some 
ten  or  twelve  mounted  dragoon  officers.  Taking  ex- 
ception to  the  colour  of  the  green  neckcloth  worn 
by  Lord  Edward,  they  barred  his  passage  with  the 
demand — no  doubt  violently  enough  expressed — that 
he  should  remove  the  obnoxious  article  of  dress. 
"  But,"  proceeds  the  well-meaning  but  ponderous 
Madden,  "  the  poor,  would-be  hero  little  knew  the 
stuff  of  which  the  man  was  made  whom  he  had 
unfortunately  singled  out  for  his  experimental  exploit." 
Remaining  calm  and  cool,  and  "  in  that  peculiarly 
quiet  tone  in  which  he  was  wont  to  speak  whenever 
his  mind  was  made  up  that  a  thing  of  importance  was 
to  be  done,"  Lord  Edward  replied  by  inviting  the 
critic  to  come  and  remove  his  neckcloth  if  he  dared  ; 
while  O'Connor,  smoothly  interposing,  suggested  the 


Xife  of  Xoro  Ebwarb  tfit36eralo  195 

alternative  of  a  more  regular  trial  of  strength,  under- 
taking that  he  and  his  companion  would  await  at 
Kildare  any  message  which  might  reach  them  there. 

The  young  officers,  however,  seem  to  have  thought 
better  of  the  expediency  of  pushing  matters  to  ex- 
tremities, and  nothing  further  came  of  the  incident, 
except  that  it  is  said  that,  whether  because  it  appeared 
to  the  feminine  mind  that  they  had  gone  too  far,  or 
possibly  not  far  enough,  the  aggressors  found  them- 
selves, at  a  ball  which  shortly  afterwards  took  place, 
left  by  common  consent  partnerless. 

It  would  have  been  interesting,  had  Lord  Edward's 
light-hearted  account  of  the  occurrence  been  forth- 
coming, to  have  contrasted  it  with  that  of  his  historian. 
Whatever  might  be  his  errors  of  judgment,  they  did 
not  lie  in  the  direction  of  manufacturing  a  tragedy 
out  of  a  farce. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

1796 

Dangerous  State  of  the  Country — Protestants  and  Catholics — 
Savage  Military  Measures— Lord  Edward  joins  the  United 
Association — Its  Warlike  Character — The  "  Bloody  Code  " 
— Lord  Edward's  Speech  on  Insurrection  Act — Mission 
of  Lord  Edward  and  O'Connor  to  French  Government — 
Meeting  with  Madame  de  Genlis — Hoche  and  Wolfe  Tone 
— Failure  of  French  Expedition. 

WHEN  Parliament  reassembled  in  January,  1796, 
the  condition  of  the  country  was  such  as 
might  well  cause  the  Government  uneasiness. 

The  natural  results  had  followed  upon  Lord  Fitz- 
william's  recall,  and  the  consequent  reversal  of  the 
policy  he  had  inaugurated.  The  patience  of  the  people, 
together  with  their  hopes,  were  exhausted  ;  repeated 
disappointment  had  done  its  work,  and  they  were  ripe 
for  insurrection. 

The  story  has  been  told  too  often  to  need  detailed 
repetition  here — outrages  followed  by  retaliation  where 
retaliation  was  possible,  the  one  as  brutal  as  the  other  ; 
the  Protestants  of  the  north  leagued  together  with 
the  object  of  ridding  the  country  of  its  Catholic 
population,  and  offering  to  the  latter  the  sole  alternatives 

196 


Xife  of  OLoro  Eowaro  ffft3(Beralb  197 

of  banishment — penniless  and  without  means  of  gaining 
a  subsistence — "  to  Hell  or  Connaught,"  or  of  having 
their  homes  destroyed  and  being  themselves  murdered. 
The  Catholics,  for  their  part,  in  districts  where  they 
preponderated,  had  set  themselves,  in  despair  of  the 
efficacy  of  other  means,  to  acquire  by  force  that  which 
more  legitimate  methods  had  failed  to  obtain  ;  and 
finally  the  country  had  been  delivered  over  to  a  savage 
military  despotism,  by  which  punishment  was  awarded 
of  such  a  nature  and  with  so  reckless  a  disregard,  not 
only  of  law  but  even  of  the  forms  of  justice,  that  it 
was  found  necessary,  on  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  to 
pass  an  Act  of  Indemnity  covering  whatever  illegalities 
might  have  been  committed  by  the  local  magistracy. 
Lord  Carhampton,  of  notorious  memory,  had  been 
despatched  to  the  west  to  quell  disturbances,  and 
as  an  illustration  of  the  spirit  displayed  throughout 
the  country  with  regard  to  such  persons  as  it  was 
deemed  expedient  to  remove,  it  may  be  sufficient  to 
cite  the  treatment  accorded,  though  at  a  later  date, 
to  the  rebel  leader  Keugh.  In  this  case  the  very  fact 
that,  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life,  Keugh  had  interposed 
to  save  that  of  Lord  Kingston  was  held,  at  his  trial, 
to  constitute  a  damning  proof  of  his  influence  with 
the  insurgents,  and  was  accepted  as  evidence  of  his 
guilt.  The  man  whom  he  had  saved  acted  as  witness 
for  the  prosecution.  It  was  no  wonder,  under  the 
circumstances,  that  when  sentence  of  death  was  passed 
upon  the  prisoner,  a  gentleman  in  the  crowd  should 
have  lifted  up  his  voice  to  thank  God  that  no  person 


198  %itc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  fflt3<3eralo 

could    prove    him    to    have  been  guilty  of  saving  the 
life  and  property  of  any  man  ! 

Such  was  the  spectacle  presented  by  the  unhappy 
country.  It  was  one  which  was  rapidly  turning  Edward 
FitzGerald  into  a  rebel  ;  which  was  sending  a  man 
like  O'Connor,  cool-headed  and  little  inclined  to  be 
swayed  by  passion  or  emotion,  to  recruit  the  ranks 
of  the  United  Irishmen  ;  and  was  making  the 
younger  and  more  enthusiastic  of  the  National  party 
decide,  in  impotent  anger — as  was  done  by  some  of 
the  guests  at  a  "  confidential  party  "  of  Lord  Edward's 
— that  the  English  language  should  be  abolished,  setting 
themselves  forthwith  to  the  study  of  the  Irish  tongue. 

It  does  not  appear  at  what  precise  date  O'Connor 
and  Lord  Edward  took  the  definite  step  of  becoming 
enrolled  as  members  of  the  United  Association.  Nor 
does  it  seem  certain  that  in  their  case  the  customary 
oath  was  administered.  There  can,  however,  be  little 
doubt  that  by  the  early  part  of  the  year  1796  both 
had,  to  all  practical  intents  and  purposes,  joined  the 
organisation. 

In  the  new  association,  constructed  upon  the  ruins  of 
that  which  had  been  crushed  by  the  coercive  measures 
of  Government,  there  was  much  that  would  attract  Lord 
Edward,  soldier  as  he  always  remained  at  heart.  For 
it  was  a  body,  if  not  distinctly  military  in  its  original 
framing,  eminently  adapted  to  become  so  ;  and  which, 
as  it  grew  evident  that  by  peaceful  agitation  no 
remedial  measures  were  to  be  obtained,  was  assuming 
daily  a  more  warlike  character. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit30eralo  199 

For  the  present,  however,  its  new  recruit  still  con- 
tinued to  attend  the  sittings  of  Parliament,  for  the 
purpose  of  making  his  futile  and  despairing  protests 
against  the  proceedings  which  were  there  taking  place. 
They  were  such  as  might  well  call  them  forth. 

The  policy  of  conciliation  having  been  finally 
abandoned,  the  only  alternative  remaining  open  to  the 
Government  was  that  of  attempting,  by  means  of  in- 
timidation and  severity,  either  to  terrorise  the  country 
into  submission  or  to  provoke  an  open  outbreak.  It 
was  an  expedient  which  the  ministry  lost  no  time  in 
adopting.  A  series  of  measures  was  introduced, 
designated  by  Curran  as  "  a  bloody  code,"  and  as 
introducing  "  a  vigour  beyond  the  law "  into  the 
administration  of  what  still  went  by  the  name  of 
justice.  It  was  these  Bills  which  Lord  Edward  still 
attempted  to  oppose. 

In  the  debate  upon  the  Insurrection  Act  he  once  more 
found  himself  acting  alone.  Grattan  had,  indeed,  com- 
bated the  measure  with  all  the  force  and  vehemence 
at  his  command  ;  but,  in  despair  of  success,  he  would 
have  finally  permitted  it  to  pass  without  a  division. 
One  solitary  voice  was  lifted  against  it — the  voice  of 
the  people's  champion. 

"  The  disturbances  of  the  country,"  Lord  Edward 
warned  the  Government,  "  are  not  to  be  remedied  by 
any  coercive  measures,  however  strong.  Such  measures 
will  tend  rather  to  exasperate  than  to  remove  the  evil. 
Nothing  can  effect  this  and  restore  tranquillity  to  the 
country,    but    a    serious    and    candid    endeavour    of 


200  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowarb  3fit36erat5 

Government  and  of  this 'House  to  redress  the  griev- 
ances of  the  people.  Redress  those,  and  the  people 
will  return  to  their  allegiance  and  their  duty.  Suffer 
them  to  continue,  and  neither  your  resolutions  nor 
your  Bills  will  have  any  effect." 

It  was  not  the  language  of  an  incendiary.  Even 
the  boyish  violence  which  had  marked  other  and  earlier 
utterances  of  the  speaker  had  died  out,  banished  by 
the  supreme  gravity  of  the  situation.  It  was  a  plain, 
unvarnished  statement — a  warning  of  what  would 
follow  should  the  Government  pursue  their  present 
course  unchecked. 

"  While  you  and  the  executive  were  philosophising," 
said  Sir  John  Parnell,  with  a  sneer,  to  Emmet,  during 
the  examination  of  the  latter  before  the  Committee 
of  Secrecy,  C£  Lord  Edward  was  arming  and  disciplining 
the  people." 

"  Lord  Edward  was  a  military  man,"  was  the  loyal 
reply,  "  and  if  he  was  doing  so  he  probably  thought 
that  was  the  way  in  which  he  could  be  most  useful 
to  the  country  ;  but  I  am  sure  that  if  those  with 
whom  he  acted  were  convinced  that  the  grievances  of 
the  people  were  redressed,  he  would  have  been  per- 
suaded to  drop  all  arming  and  disciplining." 

The  time  was  rapidly  approaching  when,  despairing 
of  any  change  of  policy  on  the  part  of  the  Govern- 
ment, Lord  Edward  was  indeed  to  set  himself  to  arm 
and  discipline  the  people.  But  Emmet  was  right.  It 
was  an  alternative  which,  mistakenly  or  not,  he  be- 
lieved to  be  forced  upon  him,  and  to   which   he  only 


%\tc  of  Xoro  ^fcwarb  fftt3<Berato         **i 

resorted  when  all  other  methods  of  resistance  had 
failed. 

In  the  May  of  the  year  1796  the  important  step 
was  decided  upon  of  despatching  agents  from  Ireland 
for  the  purpose  of  reopening  negotiations  with  the 
French  Government,  and  of  ascertaining  to  what  extent 
its  assistance  could  be  counted  upon  in  the  attempt  to 
effect  the  enfranchisement  of  the  Irish  people.  Wolfe 
Tone,  who  had  been  too  deeply  compromised  to 
allow  of  his  remaining  in  safety  in  Ireland,  had, 
during  the  summer  of  1795,  betaken  himself  to 
America  ;  but,  too  restless  to  remain  for  any  length 
of  time  at  a  distance  from  the  scene  of  action,  the 
beginning  of  the  following  year  found  him  at  Paris, 
using  his  utmost  endeavours  to  stir  up  the  Government 
there  to  active  measures. 

His  representations  of  the  condition  of  the  country 
and  of  the  extent  of  the  prevailing  disaffection  had  the 
effect  of  inducing  the  Directory  to  intimate  to  the 
United  Irishmen  that  France  would  be  prepared  to 
lend  her  assistance  to  an  attempt  to  shake  off  their 
fetters  and  to  establish,  in  the  place  of  the  present 
tyrannical  Government,  an  Irish  Republic.  To  this 
offer  a  qualified  acceptance  was  returned  by  the  Irish 
Executive,  coupled  with  the  stipulation  that  the  French 
forces  to  be  employed  should  act  in  the  character  alone 
of  allies,  and  should  receive  Irish  pay.  These 
conditions  having  been  readily  accepted  by  the 
Directory,  and  the  promise  of  assistance  being 
reiterated,  it  was    decided  to   send    accredited    envoys 


202  xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<3eralo 

from  Ireland  to  settle  the  details  of  the  proposed 
alliance,  and  to  arrange  a  plan  of  invasion.  Lord 
Edward  FitzGerald  and  Arthur  O'Connor  were 
selected  as  delegates  whose  position  and  names  would 
lend  weight  and  importance  to  the  mission  with  which 
they  were  to  be  entrusted. 

It  has  been  denied  that  Lord  Edward  and  his  friend 
occupied,  on  this  occasion,  the  position  of  authorised 
agents  of  the  United  Association  ;  and  in  support  of 
this  statement  might  be  cited  O'Connor's  own  distinct 
declaration  that  he  had  not  been  at  this,  date  a 
member  of  the  society.  But  though  his  assertion 
was  no  doubt  technically  true,  it  can  scarcely  be  less 
than  certain  that  the  two  were  in  fact  deputed  by 
the  United  party  to  enter  into  negotiations  on  their 
behalf  with  the  Republican  Government.  As  indi- 
viduals they  would  have  carried  little  weight  ;  while, 
besides,  the  language  of  Reinhard,  in  denying  to 
Lord  Edward  the  qualities  necessary  to  fit  him  for 
the  command  of  an  enterprise  or  the  leadership  of 
a  party,  must  be  taken  as  pointing  distinctly  to  the 
fact  that  he  held  the  position  he  was  thus  pronounced 
incapable  of  filling  satisfactorily. 

It  had  been  determined  that  the  envoys  should 
proceed  in  the  first  place  to  Hamburg,  to  open  com- 
munications with  the  French  Government  through 
the  minister  by  whom  it  was  there  represented.  Lord 
Edward,  therefore,  set  out  for  that  town,  being  accom- 
panied by  his  wife,  with  the  object  of  lending  to  the 
journey  the  complexion  of  one  taken  for  private  reasons. 


%itc  of  Xoro  Edward  jfttsCBeralo  203 

Passing  through  London  on  his  way,  he  met  at 
dinner  his  cousin  Charles  Fox,  with  Sheridan  and 
others  of  the  Whig  leaders,  to  whom  it  does  not 
appear  whether  or  not  he  confided  the  nature  of  the 
business  he  had  in  hand.  Thence  he  proceeded, 
with  Pamela,  to  their  destination  ;  where,  being  joined 
by  Arthur  O'Connor,  the  envoys  lost  no  time  in 
setting  on  foot  the  negotiations  they  had  come  to 
conduct. 

At  Hamburg  a  meeting  likewise  took  place  between 
Madame  de  Genlis  and  her  adopted  daughter,  which 
seems  to  have  given  general  satisfaction.  Pamela 
had  been,  so  far,  a  success  ;  and  it  was  not  surprising 
that  when  her  guardian  called  to  mind  the  little 
foundling  who  had  been  surrendered  to  her  care,  she 
should  have  experienced  some  gratified  pride  in  the 
results  of  the  arrangement.  The  opinion  she  enter- 
tained of  the  position  held  by  her  former  ward  in 
Ireland — based,  no  doubt,  upon  data  furnished  by 
Pamela  herself — was  such  as  might  well  afford  her 
satisfaction.  Amidst  all  the  gaiety  of  youth  and  the* 
splendour  of  beauty — so  the  record  runs — she  had 
acted  with  the  most  exemplary  propriety  ;  and,  four 
years  married,  was  adored  by  her  husband  and  his 
family — one  cannot  but  perceive  a  touch  of  exaggera- 
tion here — and  even  by  one  of  his  uncles,  who  had 
made  her  personally  a  present  of  a  fine  country  seat, 
for  to  such  dignity  is  exalted  the  tiny  cottage  at 
Kildare,  valued  by  Lord  Edward,  when  it  was  a 
question  of  accepting  the  gift,  at   the  figure  of  three 


2o4  fttfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3ftt3(Berato 

hundred  pounds !  And  added  to  all,  Pamela  herself, 
the  heroine  of  the  romance,  was  more  charming 
than  ever.  Truly  Madame  de  Genlis  had  cause  to 
congratulate  herself  once  more  upon  the  success  which 
had  attended  "  the  best  action  of  her  life "  ;  and  in 
the  preface  to  a  work  published  in  Dublin  during  this 
same  year — the  FitzGeralds  probably  acting  as  inter- 
mediaries between  author  and  publisher — she  declared, 
having  no  doubt  Pamela  in  especial  in  her  mind,  that 
she  consented  to  be  judged  by  the  results  of  her 
teaching  as  exemplified  in  her  pupils.  It  is  a  curious 
comment  upon  the  blindness  of  affection  that  in  the 
very  volume  in  which  the  boast  is  made  a  tale  is 
included  having  for  its  object  "  de  preserver  les 
jeunes  personnes  de  Fambition  des  conquetes  "  ;  for 
one  is  justified  in  doubting,  remembering  the  character 
borne  by  her  foster-daughter  in  after-years,  whether 
this  particular  lesson  had  taken  its  full  effect  upon  one 
at  least  of  her  scholars.  Madame  de  Genlis  was, 
however,  by  her  own  showing,  careful  to  preserve  a 
distinction  between  theoretical  and  practical  morality. 
"  On  ne  compose  pas  avec  sa  conscience,"  she  observes 
loftily,  "  et  nul  respect  humain  doit  empecher  de  con- 
damner  formellement  ce  qui  est  vicieux  "  ;  yet  when 
it  becomes  a  personal  question,  she  is  anxious  to  point 
out  that  indulgence  should  find  a  place.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly good  doctrine,  but,  like  others,  capable  of 
abuse,  and,  carried  out,  explains  much  discrepancy 
between  a  creed  and  a  life. 

In  later  years   the   relations   between  guardian    and 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3(3eralo  205 

pupil  underwent  various  vicissitudes,  and  on  one 
occasion  the  first  regretfully  observes,  throwing  the 
blame,  somewhat  strangely,  upon  political  convulsions, 
that  it  had  taken  two  revolutions  to  prevent  Pamela 
from  fulfilling  all  the  promise  of  her  youth.  For  the 
present,  however,  she  had  no  fault  to  find  with  her. 
She  was  under  the  erroneous  impression,  which,  one 
may  be  sure,  the  FitzGeralds  were  at  no  pains  to 
disturb,  sthat  the  visit  to  Hamburg  had  been  under- 
taken with  the  sole  object  of  effecting  a  meeting  with 
herself;  and  gratification  at  such  a  proof  of  devotion, 
offered,  moreover,  at  a  time  when  Pamela  was  not  in 
a  condition  favourable  to  travelling,  may  well  have 
contributed  to  enhance  the  affection  with  which  she 
regarded  her.  Lord  Edward,  too,  comes  in  for  his 
full  share  of  praise.  In  contrasting  the  conduct  of 
both  husband  and  wife  with  that  of  others  from  whom 
gratitude  might  likewise  have  been  expected,  she 
observes  that,  knowing  Pamela's  heavenly  soul,  she 
had  felt  no  surprise  at  her  behaviour ;  but  to  Lord 
Edward's  constant  kindness  she  pays  an  enthusiastic 
tribute. 

While  Pamela  and  her  former  guardian  were  enjoy- 
ing each  other's  society,  the  two  colleagues  were 
busily  engaged  in  pursuing  the  objects  of  their 
political  mission,  and  negotiations  were  being  carried 
on  through  Reinhard  with  the  French  Directory. 
The  results,  however,  were  not  commensurate  with  the 
expectations  which  had  been  indulged,  and  were  neither 
satisfactory  nor  decisive.     Furthermore,  while  Reinhard 


206  xtfe  ot  Xoro  Bowarfc  ffft3(3eralt> 

entertained  doubts  of  the  fitness  of  Lord  Edward  for 
the  part  he  had  been  chosen  to  fill,  the  delegates  had  in 
return  conceived  misgivings  as  to  the  trustworthiness  of 
the  minister  himself.  Whether  or  not  such  a  suspicion 
of  bad  faith  was  well  founded,  which  seems  unlikely, 
the  object  of  it  can  scarcely  be  acquitted  of  some 
culpable  carelessness,  since  the  English  Government 
was  furnished  by  its  own  consul  at  Hamburg  with 
copies  of  certain  letters  addressed  by  Reinhard  to  the 
French  Minister,  De  La  Croix.  It  was,  at  all  events, 
decided  by  the  Irish  envoys  to  proceed  to  Basle,  and 
to  conduct  their  further  negotiations  from  that  place — 
a  plan  which  they  accordingly  carried  out,  Pamela  alone 
of  the  party  remaining  behind  in  the  care  of  Madame 
de  Genlis  at  Hamburg,  where  shortly  afterwards  her 
little  daughter  and  namechild,  Pamela,  was  born. 

Lord  Edward  and  his  companion  meanwhile  spent 
a  month  at  Basle  ;  after  which,  arriving  at  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  of  importance  that  personal 
communication  should  be  established  between  them- 
selves and  the  French  General,  Hoche,  to  whom  the 
command  of  the  expedition  to  Ireland  was  to  be  en- 
trusted, they  determined  to  proceed  to  Paris  itself. 
The  French  Government,  however,  had  its  own  objec- 
tions to  oppose  to  the  plan,  showing  itself  unwilling, 
in  view  of  Lord  Edward's  connection,  through  his 
marriage,  with  the  Orleans  family,  to  treat  with  him 
at  headquarters.  Ultimately  the  capital  was  visited 
by  neither  delegate,  O'Connor  having  instead  an 
interview  elsewhere,  with  "  a  person  high  in  the  confi- 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eovvato  tfit36eralo  207 

dence  of  the  Directory,"  while  Lord  Edward  returned 
alone  to  rejoin  Pamela  at  Hamburg. 

It  was  on  this  return  journey  from  Basle  that  an 
incident  occurred  which  gives  singular  corroboration 
to  the  criticisms  made  by  Reinhard,  and  bears  witness 
to  the  absolute  unfitness  of  the  subject  of  them  to 
be  entrusted  with  the  conduct  of  a  conspiracy. 

Chancing  to  have,  as  his  travelling-companion  for 
a  part  of  the  journey,  a  lady  between  whom  and  one 
of  Mr.  Pitt's  colleagues  there  had  in  former  times 
existed  some  connection,  the  young  Irishman — in 
ignorance,  of  course,  of  this  circumstance — allowed 
himself  to  be  led  into  communicating  to  her,  with  his 
accustomed  frankness,  not  only  his  own  views  and 
opinions  concerning  political  questions,  but  was  so 
strangely  incautious  as  to  permit  his  fellow-traveller  to 
obtain  a  clue  as  to  the  objects  of  his  present  mission, 
all  of  which  information  she  naturally  forwarded  without 
delay  to  her  friend  in  the  Government. 

It  was  one  of  those  indiscretions — almost  incredible, 
when  the  circumstances  are  taken  into  account — which 
justified  a  friend  of  Fox's,  meeting  Grattan  a  year 
later,  on  the  occasion  of  the  trial  of  Arthur  O'Connor, 
in  observing  to  the  Irishman  that  if  he,  the  speaker, 
were  to  rebel,  it  would  not  be  in  company  with 
Grattan's  countrymen,  "  for,  by  God,  they  are  the 
worst  rebels  I  ever  heard  of!  " 

Whether  or  not,  as  a  general  indictment,  the  charge 
was  true,  or  whether,  at  any  rate,  the  Irish  might 
not  have  exhibited  in  the  field  such  counterbalancing 


2o8  xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3ftt3<3eralt> 

gifts  as  to  vindicate  their  character  in  this  respect, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  regard  to  some 
not  unimportant  qualifications  for  rebellion  Fox's 
friend  was  right.  In  the  matter  of  preparation  and 
preliminaries  they  combined  with  extraordinary  energy 
and  zeal,  and  with  the  possession,  to  an  uncommon 
degree,  of  the  power  of  organisation,  an  equally 
astonishing  lack  of  some  of  the  qualities  most  necessary 
to  carry  an  enterprise  of  the  kind  to  a  successful 
issue  ;  and  in  such  qualities — the  qualities  of  the 
conspirator — none  was  more  deficient  than  the  man 
who  was  to  conduct  it. 

At  Paris,  meanwhile,  General  Hoche  was  giving 
evidence  of  a  discretion  which  presents  a  marked 
contrast  to  Lord  Edward's  reckless  neglect  of  the 
commonest  precautions. 

Wolfe  Tone's  first  meeting  with  the  General  who 
was  expected  to  play  so  important  a  part  in  Irish 
affairs  took  place  in  July,  when  a  "  very  handsome, 
well-made  young  fellow  " — they  were  all  young  together 
in  those  days,  from  Napoleon  downwards,  and  the 
veteran  among  French  generals  only  counted  some 
six-and-thirty  years — accosted  him  with  the  remark  : 
"  Vous  etes  le  citoyen  Smith  ?  " 

"  I    thought,"   observes    Tone,    "  he  was  a  chef  de 
bureau^  and  replied,  '  Oui,  citoyen,  je  m'appelle  Smith.' 
"  '  Vous  vous  appelez  aussi,  je  crois,  Wolfe  Tone  ? ' 
"  I  replied  :   '  Oui,  citoyen,  c'est  mon  veritable  nom.' 
"cEh  bien,'  replied  he,  cje  suis  le  General  Hoche.' ' 
Ten  days  later    Hoche,  whom    Tone,  now  chef  de 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3Fit30eralo  209 

brigade  and  soon  to  be  nominated  Adjutant-General, 
was  visiting  in  bed,  took  the  opportunity  of  sounding 
the  Irishman  on  the  subject  of  the  two  delegates  who 
were  already  in  communication  with  his  Government, 
carefully  avoiding  any  reference  to  the  negotiations 
which  were  in  progress,  and  giving  no  indication 
of  any  personal  acquaintance  on  his  own  part  with 
their  views  and  intentions. 

"  Hoche  asked  me,"  relates  Tone,  "  did  I  know 
Arthur  O'Connor  ?  I  replied  that  I  did,  and  that 
I  entertained  the  highest  opinions  of  his  talents, 
principles,  and  patriotism.  .  .  .  '  Well,'  said  he,  '  will 
he  join  us  ? '  I  answered  I  hoped,  as  he  was  fonciere- 
ment  Irlandais^  that  he  undoubtedly  would." 

Hoche  then  proceeded,  still  with  the  same  caution, 
to  make  further  enquiries.  There  was  a  lord,  he 
observed  tentatively,  in  Tone's  country — the  son  of 
a  duke — was  he  not  likewise  a  patriot  ?  After  a 
moment's  bewilderment  his  visitor  recognised  in  the 
description  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald — the  fact  of  even 
that  momentary  bewilderment  on  his  part  pointing 
to  the  recent  character  of  Lord  Edward's  prominence 
in  the  movement — and  "  gave  Hoche  a  very  good 
account  of  him." 

What  came  of  this  summer's  work,  of  Tone's 
intrigues  at  Paris,  of  the  mission  of  Lord  Edward 
and  O'Connor,  and  of  the  attempt  of  the  French 
Republic  to  further  the  cause  of  Irish  liberty,  is  too 
well  known  to  need  more  than  a  brief  summary  here. 

On  December  15th,  after  manifold  delays,  a  French 

14 


2io  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jftt3(3eralo 

fleet  actually  set  sail,  with  the  object  of  effecting  the 
deliverance  of  the  Irish  people.  If  the  Directory  had 
been  slow  in  arriving  at  a  decision,  now  that  the 
enterprise  was  actually  undertaken,  it  was  done  on 
no  niggardly  scale.  Not  less  than  seventeen  sail  of 
the  line,  thirteen  frigates,  and  the  same  number  of 
transports  set  out  from  Brest,  to  fulfil  the  engage- 
ments of  the  French  Government.  Everything 
promised  success  :  the  coasts  of  Ireland  were  strangely 
undefended  ;  no  troops  were  at  hand  to  repel  the 
foreign  allies,  should  they  effect  a  landing  ;  over  large 
portions  of  the  country  the  population  was  in  a 
condition  already  bordering  upon  open  resistance  ;  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act  had  been  suspended  two  months 
earlier,  and  the  people,  delivered  over  to  a  military 
despotism  of  unexampled  severity,  were  ripe  for 
revolt.  All  seemed  to  presage  an  easy  triumph. 
But  the  stars  in  their  courses  fought  against  the 
cause  of  Irish  liberty. 

On  the  very  night  the  squadron  set  sail  from  Brest 
one  ship  struck  on  the  rocks  and  was  lost.  By  a 
more  fatal  disaster  the  Fraternity  the  vessel  which, 
by  strange  mismanagement,  carried  on  board  both 
Admiral  and  General-in-Chief,  was  separated  from 
the  remainder  of  the  fleet  ;  and  when  at  length  the 
squadron  was  permitted  by  storm,  fog,  and  tempest  to 
reach  Bantry  Bay,  it  was  found  that  it  only  counted 
sixteen  sail  instead  of  the  forty-three  it  had  numbered 
at  starting,  and  that  what  remained  of  it  carried  no 
more  than  6,500  troops. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3<Seralo  211 

Tone,  eating  his  heart  out  on  board  one  of  the 
ships  which  lay  off  the  Irish  coast,  was  in  favour, 
in  spite  of  the  disasters  which  had  befallen  the  ex- 
pedition, of  attempting  to  effect  a  landing,  trusting 
to  the  native  population  to  recruit  the  invading 
forces.  In  the  absence,  however,  of  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  more  prudent  counsels  won  the  day  ;  and 
after  the  remnant  of  the  fleet  had  been  once  more 
scattered  by  the  winds,  it  was  determined  to  set  sail 
and  to  return  to  Brest. 

Thus  ended  the  first  attempt,  upon  which  so  many 
hopes  had  been  built,  to  establish  freedom  on  the 
French  pattern  in  Ireland. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

1797 

Effects  of  the  French  Failure — United  Irishmen  and  Parlia- 
mentary Opposition — Attitude  of  Grattan — Lord  Castle- 
reagh — Government  Brutality — Lord  Moira's  Denuncia- 
tion— Lord  Edward  and  his  Family — Charge  against  him 
— Meets  a  French  Envoy  in  London — Insurrectionary 
Projects. 

THE  disastrous  failure  of  the  French  expedition 
took  effect  in  various  ways  upon  public  opinion 
in  Ireland,  and  in  more  quarters  than  one  the  whole 
affair  gave  cause  for  reflection. 

Even  to  some  of  the  more  ardent  Republican 
spirits,  as  well  as  to  those  by  whom  the  invocation 
of  foreign  aid  had  always  been  looked  upon  as  an 
unwelcome  though  necessary  expedient,  the  unexpected 
strength  of  the  French  armament  may  have  suggested 
a  doubt  whether  the  aims  and  intentions  of  those 
by  whom  it  had  been  despatched  had  been  so  wholly 
disinterested  as  they  had  been  represented.  A 
suspicion  of  the  possible  existence  of  other  objects 
on  the  part  of  their  allies  besides  those  for  which 
the  expedition  had  been  ostensibly  equipped  may 
reasonably  have  been  aroused. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3(3eralb  213 

However  that  might  be,  it  was  clear  that  the 
collapse  of  the  enterprise  had  incalculably  lessened, 
or  at  least  delayed,  the  chances  of  a  successful  appeal 
to  force  as  a  means  of  putting  an  end  to  the  system 
of  oppression  of  which  the  unhappy  people  were  the 
victims.  Under  these  circumstances  the  United  Irish- 
men, with  whom  Lord  Edward  must  be  for  the  future 
identified,  intimated  their  desire,  in  the  spring  of 
1797,  to  confer  with  the  leaders  of  the  Parliamentary 
Opposition,  together  with  their  readiness  to  arrive  at 
an  understanding  pledging  themselves  and  those  with 
whom  they  acted  to  accept  a  moderate  measure  of 
reform. 

It  was  an  opportunity  which,  had  the  temper  of 
the  Government  been  other  than  it  was,  might  have 
changed  the  face  of  Irish  politics,  and  disappointment 
and  hope  might  have  joined  hands  to  effect  a  genuine 
reconciliation.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  more 
moderate  men  amongst  the  party  were  sincere  in 
their  desire  to  make  conditional  peace  with  the 
Government.  Emmet  afterwards  declared  that,  had 
their  overtures  been  accepted,  the  Executive  Directory 
of  the  United  Irish  Association  would  have  sent  to 
inform  the  French  authorities  that  the  difference  be- 
tween the  people  and  the  Government  was  adjusted, 
and  to  decline  a  second  invasion. 

On  Grattan  rests  the  responsibility  of  having,  so 
far  as  the  Parliamentary  Opposition  was  concerned, 
declined  to  accept  the  advances  made,  and  of  having 
thrown    the   weight    of  his    influence    into    the    scales 


2i4  %ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3ftt36eralo 

against  the  proposed  step.  Always  adverse  to  the 
extreme  section  of  the  National  party,  he  now  declined 
to  meet  them,  arguing  that,  while  such  a  proceeding 
would  probably  be  productive  of  no  good  result, 
he  and  his  friends  would  be  placed  in  an  embarrass- 
ing situation. 

He  may  have  been  right  in  both  positions  ;  yet 
it  should  never  be  forgotten  that  from  the  United 
Irishmen,  hot-headed  and  violent  as  was  the  character 
they  bore,   came  the  rejected  overtures  of  conciliation. 

In  order  to  understand  the  refusal  of  such  a  man 
as  Grattan,  in  the  desperate  condition  of  the  country, 
to  make  so  much  as  an  attempt  at  co-operation,  it 
is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  not  only  his  conviction 
of  the  absolute  hopelessness  of  any  endeavour  to 
move  the  Government  from  the  course  they  were 
pursuing,  but  also  his  rooted  distrust  of  the  leaders 
with  whom  it  was  a  question  of  forming  an  alliance. 

There  is  something  tragic,  which  leaves  no  room 
for  reproach,  even  if  it  is  impossible  not  to  see  in 
it  cause  for  regret,  in  the  attitude  of  the  men  of 
whom  Grattan  was  the  most  distinguished  representative. 
Loyal,  true,  and  upright,  they  had  given  their  lives, 
and  had  given  them  in  vain,  to  further  what  they 
conceived  to  be  the  best  interests  of  their  country. 
Now,  defeated  on  all  hands,  they  were  forced  to 
look  on,  an  isolated  and  helpless  group,  and  to  watch 
the  people  they  had  done  their  best  to  serve  led, 
as  they  believed,  to  destruction  by  other  and  less 
experienced  guides. 


OLtfe  of  Xoro  jEowaro  fftt3<Sei*alo  215 

"  Alas  !  all  the  world  is  mad,"  wrote  Lord  Charlemont 
about  this  very  time,  "  and  unfortunately  strait-waist- 
coats are  not  yet  in  fashion."  And  again  :  "  My  advice 
has  been  lavished  on  both  parties  with  equally  ill 
success.  .  .  .  Would  to  Heaven  it  had  been  other- 
wise ;  but,  spurred  on  by  destiny,  we  seem  on  all  hands 
to  run  a  rapid  course  towards  a  frightful  precipice. 
But  it  is  criminal  to  despair  of  one's  country  ;  I  will 
endeavour  yet  to  hope." 

It  is  but  a  feeble  hope  which  is  kept  alive  by  the 
consciousness  that  despair  is  a  crime. 

The  view  he  imagined  would  have  been  taken 
by  his  father  of  the  United  Irishmen  is  summarised, 
a  little  brutally,  by  Grattan's  son — namely,  that  they 
were  "  a  pack  of  blockheads  who  would  surely  get 
themselves  hanged,  and  should  be  all  put  in  the 
pillory  for  their  mischief  and  nonsense."  Grattan 
knew  but  little  of  the  individuals  who  composed  the 
party,  and  of  some  of  them  a  more  intimate  knowledge 
might  have  modified  the  rough-and-ready  judgment 
attributed  to  him.  "  He  did  not  associate  with  them," 
says  the  same  authority  ;  "  they  kept  clear  of  him — 
they  feared  him,  and  certainly  did  not  like  him.  .  .  . 
He  considered  their  proceedings  not  only  mischievous 
but  ridiculous." 

And  yet,  holding  this  opinion  of  the  men  who 
were  rebels,  it  is  curious  to  study  some  significant 
sentences  which  occur  in  an  explanation  given,  twenty 
years  later,  by  the  great  Irish  leader  of  the  reasons  for 
the  course  he  pursued  in  withdrawing  from  Parliament 


2i6  Xife  of  %ovb  Efcwart)  3fit36eralt) 

— a  course  pressed  upon  him,  as  well  as  upon 
George  Ponsonby,  by  a  deputation  of  which  Lord 
Edward  was  one. 

"  The  reason  why  we  seceded,"  he  explained,  in 
the  year  1817,  "was  that  we  did  not  approve  of  the 
conduct  of  the  United  men,  and  we  could  not  approve 
of  the  conduct  of  the  Government,"  and  feared  to 
encourage  the  former  by  making  speeches  against  the 
latter.  .  .  .  "It  was  not  necessary,"  he  went  on, 
speaking  of  the  Government  of  the  day,  "  for  me  to 
apologise  for  not  having  joined  them.  It  might  be 
necessary,  perhaps,  to  offer  some  reason  to  posterity 
why  I  had  not  joined  the  rebels.  I  would  do  neither. 
The  one  was  a  rebel  to  his  king,  the  other  to  his 
country.  In  the  conscientious  sense  of  the  word  rebel 
there  should  have  been  a  gallows  for  the  rebel,  and 
there  should  have  been  a  gallows  for  the  minister. 
Men  will  be  more  blamed  in  history  for  having  joined 
the  Government  than  they  would  if  they  had  joined 
the  rebels."  "  The  question  men  should  have  asked," 
he  once  said,  speaking  of  those  unfortunate  brothers, 
the  two  Sheares,  who  walked  hand  in  hand  to  the 
scaffold  and  so  died — "  the  question  men  should 
have  asked  was  not,  '  Why  was  Mr.  Sheares  on  the 
gallows  ? '  but,  '  Why  was  not  Lord  Clare  along 
with  him  ? '  " 

Others  besides  Grattan,  looking  back  with  the 
melancholy  wisdom  time  and  experience  had  taught, 
were  not  disposed  to  view  those  who  had  resorted 
to     physical     force     altogether     in     the     same     light 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffit36eralo  217 

as  they  had  viewed  them  at  the  time.  Valentine 
Lawless,  afterwards  Lord  Cloncurry,  has  left  it  upon 
record  that,  though  he  had  dissented  at  the  time  from 
Lord  Edward's  opinion  that  the  only  hope  of  effecting 
the  reforms  desired  by  both  the  friends  alike  lay  in 
separation,  half  a  century  of  vain  watching  for  signs 
of  regeneration  had  led  him  to  doubt  his  early  con- 
clusions, and  to  ask  himself,  "  Was  Lord  Edward 
right  or  wrong  in  his  conviction  ? " 

Lord  Holland,  too,  cousin  to  the  FitzGeralds,  but 
an  Englishman,  and  blinded  by  no  national  prejudice, 
when  expressing,  twenty-six  years  later,  his  deliberate 
judgment  upon  the  principles  for  which  Lord  Edward 
had  suffered,  observed  that  "  he  who  thinks  that  a 
man  can  be  even  excused  in  such  circumstances  " — 
the  condition  of  Ireland  in  1798 — "  by  any  con- 
sideration than  that  of  despair  from  opposing  a 
pretended  Government  by  force,  seems  to  me  to 
sanction  a  principle  which  would  secure  immunity 
to  the  greatest  of  all  human  delinquents,  or  at 
least  to  them  who  produce  the  greatest  misery  among 
mankind." 

It  may  be  well  for  any  one  inclined  to  look  upon 
the  rebels  of  1798  as  mad  and  wicked  incendiaries, 
bent  upon  plunging  their  country,  for  purposes  of 
their  own,  into  bloodshed  and  misery,  to  ponder 
these  utterances,  spoken  with  calm  deliberation  at 
a  date  when  time  had  cleared  away  the  mists  of 
passion  and  prejudice  which  obscure  men's  vision  at  a 
period  of  great  national  convulsion. 


218  xtfe  of  QLoro  Eowaro  ffit3(3eralo 

In  the  summer  of  1797  a  new  and  important 
addition  had  been  made  to  the  official  staff  at  the 
Castle  in  the  person  of  a  young  man,  some  six  years 
younger  than  Lord  Edward  himself,  but  destined, 
in  spite  of  his  youth,  to  play  a  considerable  part  in 
the  history  of  Ireland  during  the  ensuing  years.  This 
was  Robert  Stewart,  lately  become,  by  his  father's 
elevation  to  an  earldom,  Viscount  Castlereagh,  who 
in  the  month  of  July  was  not  only  made  Keeper  of 
the  Privy  Seal,  but  was  entrusted  provisionally  with 
the  performance  of  the  duties  belonging  to  the  office 
of  Chief  Secretary — a  post  to  which  he  was  afterwards 
appointed  upon  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Pelham,  at 
this  time  absent  in  England. 

Lord  Castlereagh's  was  a  strong,  and  in  some 
respects  an  interesting,  personality.  He  possessed 
talent,  industry,  perseverance,  and  determination.  To 
judge  by  his  portrait,  he  added  a  singular  beauty  of 
feature  to  his  more  substantial  gifts,  and  his  courtesy 
was,  if  cold,  unfailing.  As  evidence  of  his  charm  of 
manner  and  bearing,  it  is  worth  while  to  quote  a 
witness  as  unlikely  to  have  been  biassed  in  his  favour 
as  Charles  Teeling,  the  United  Irishman,  who,  describing 
a  visit  he  had  received  in  prison  from  Castlereagh — 
by  whom  he  had  been  arrested  in  person — dwells 
upon  the  fascination  of  his  manners,  his  engaging 
address,  and  his  attractiveness  and  grace. 

Turning  from  his  personal  to  his  political  aspect, 
his  views  at  his  entry  upon  public  life  seem  to  have 
borne  the    stamp   of  an  inconsistency  often  denoting 


Su  Thomas  Lawrence,  pinx.  Photo,  by  Walker  &  Cockerell. 

Viscount  Castlereagh. 


page  218. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowavo  fftt3(Seralo  219 

the  influence  of  personal  choice,  as  distinguished  from 
the  homogeneous  character  of  a  complete  set  of 
opinions  adopted  ready  made,  as  the  equipment  of 
the  member  of  a  party,  or  the  heritage  of  a  family- 
tradition.  He  had  supported  the  Act  of  1793  by 
which  the  franchise  was  extended  to  Catholic  free- 
holders ;  but  his  desire  for  Parliamentary  reform  had 
stopped  short  at  that  point.  He  was  a  Tory,  but 
exempt  from  the  apprehensions  of  his  party  with 
regard  to  the  effect  of  the  revolution  upon  France. 
When,  later  on,  he  flung  himself  body  and  soul 
into  the  endeavour  to  carry  the  Union,  he  desired  that 
the  measure  should  be  accompanied  or  followed  by 
one  of  Catholic  emancipation. 

Comparing  his  position,  at  this  stage  of  his  career, 
with  that  of  Lord  Edward,  their  antecedents  were 
not  without  points  in  common.  Both  were  Irish, 
both  well  born — the  Stewarts  being  an  influential 
family  of  County  Down — both  were  soldiers,  both 
had  entered  upon  political  life  at  the  earliest  age 
possible,  Castlereagh  having  been  put  forward,  before 
he  had  completed  his  twenty-first  year,  by  the  in- 
dependent freeholders  of  his  county  in  opposition 
to  Lord  Downshire's  nominee.  Castlereagh,  as  well 
as  Lord  Edward,  had  at  the  outset  voted  for  the 
most  part  with  the  Opposition.  Though  there  is  no 
definite  proof  of  the  fact,  they  must  have  had  many 
of  the  same  associates,  and  can  scarcely  have  failed 
to  have  been  personally  acquainted.  Charles  Fitz- 
Gerald,    Lord    Edward's    brother,    was    a    friend   of 


2  2o         xife  of  Xoro  Bowaro  tfit30eralo 

Castlereagh's,  and  his  aunt  Lady  Louisa  Conolly — 
in  contradiction  to  the  robust  hatred  cherished  by  her 
sister  Lady  Sarah  for  the  "  ignorant,  vain,  shallow 
Secretary " — had  evidently  a  liking  for  the  young 
man,  and  full  confidence  in  his  high  character  and 
good  intentions. 

Yet,  whatever  had  been  the  case  in  the  past,  the 
two  now  stood  each  the  most  prominent  representative 
of  hostile  camps — the  one  backed  by  the  whole  force 
of  the  English  Government  and  its  resources,  financial 
and  military  ;  the  other  dependent  alone  for  support  upon 
the  passionate  allegiance  of  the  mass  of  the  Irish  people. 

It  was  an  unequal  struggle.  Castlereagh  won  ; 
living  to  fill  post  after  post  of  honour,  responsibility, 
and  power  ;  while  Lord  Edward,  within  a  year,  lay 
dead  in  his  prison.  Yet  the  last,  living,  was  idolised, 
and  dead,  has  been  ever  loved  and  honoured  ;  whereas 
"  few  men,"  says  his  biographer,  "  have  been  the 
victim  of  such  constant  and  intense  unpopularity " 
as  Lord  Castlereagh — an  unpopularity  which  has 
followed  him  to  his  grave,  and  is  expressed,  in  brutal 
form,  in  Byron's  epitaph.1 

Meantime,  while  the  new  Chief  Secretary  was 
being  initiated  into  his  duties,  things  in  the  country 
were  going  from  bad  to  worse.  "  They  treated  the 
people,"  Grattan  said  long  afterwards,  speaking  of  the 

1  With  death  doomed  to  grapple 
Beneath  this  cold  slab  he 
Who  lied  in  the  chapel 
Now  lies  in  the  Abbey. 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3<3eralb  221 

military  tyranny  which  prevailed,  "  not  like  rebel 
Christians,  but  like  rebel  dogs."  As  an  instance  of 
the  spirit  which  prevailed  and  the  ferocity  of  the 
sentiments  indulged  among  the  upper  classes  with 
regard  to  the  disaffected,  then  and  later,  it  is  worth 
while  to  refer  to  a  paper  printed,  in  September,  1799, 
in  the  'Dublin  Magazine.  Dealing  with  the  effect  pro- 
duced upon  the  peasantry  by  the  conspicuous  exhibition 
of  the  mutilated  remains  of  their  slaughtered  comrades, 
the  writer  quotes  the  words  "  of  a  gentleman  who 
seemed  to  speak  the  sense  of  his  countrymen "  in 
saying  that  he  wished  "  we  had  more  heads  up,  if  it 
were  likely  they  could  again  rouse  the  villains  to 
insurrection,  for  we  are  fully  able  to  put  them  down, 
and  the  more  we  despatch  the  better." 

At  an  earlier  date,  too,  Rochford,  determined  to  set 
fire  to  a  whole  quarter  in  which  a  crime  had  been 
committed,  declared  that  it  was  impossible  that  an 
innocent  person  could  suffer,  for  such  a  person  was  not 
to  be  found. 

The  peasantry  were  not,  however,  without  their 
advocates,  powerless  though  they  might  be  ;  and  Lord 
Moira  in  particular,  from  his  place  in  the  English 
House  of  Lords,  did  not  shrink  from  pointing  out  the 
results  of  the  policy  which  was  being  pursued. 

On  November  27th,  1 797,  he  made  a  solemn  arraign- 
ment of  the  whole  system  at  work,  and  after  describing 
the  horrors  of  which  his  country  was  the  scene — the 
tortures  inflicted,  the  half-hangings  on  mere  suspicion, 
the    burning    of    houses,    and    other    outrages     daily 


222  %{fc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffit3(Beralo 

perpetrated  with  complete  immunity — "  the  rack, 
indeed,"  he  allowed  bitterly,  comparing  the  sufferings 
of  the  Irish  with  those  of  the  victims  of  the  Inquisition, 
"  was  not  applied,  because,  perhaps,  it  was  not  at 
hand " — he  proceeded  to  warn  the  House  that  the 
numbers  of  United  Irishmen  were  on  the  increase  in 
every  part  of  the  Kingdom,  and  to  express  his  con- 
viction that,  if  the  present  system  were  continued, 
Ireland  would  not  remain  connected  with  England  for 
another  five  years. 

He  spoke  the  opinion  of  the  more  moderate  party 
in  Ireland,  who  were  rapidly  dissociating  themselves 
from  any  share  in  responsibility  for  the  proceedings 
of  the  Government.  The  FitzGerald  connection,  in 
especial,  whatever  differences  of  opinion  they  might 
entertain  as  to  the  best  modes  of  resistance,  were 
unanimous  in  their  repudiation  of  the  policy  pursued. 

Lady  Sarah  Napier,  writing  in  June,  1797,  from 
Celbridge,  where  she  was  living  close  to  her  sister, 
Lady  Louisa  Conolly,  is  explicit  on  the  subject. 
She  had  never,  she  says,  up  to  that  time  believed 
Ireland  to  be  really  in  a  bad  way,  "  because  I 
could  not  imagine  upon  what  grounds  to  form  the 
reasoning  that  actuates  the  Government  to  urge  on  a 
civil  war  with  all  their  power.  But  since,  from  some 
unknown  cause,  it  is  their  plan,  I  will  do  them  the 
justice  to  say  they  have  acted  uniformly  well  in  it,  and 
have  nearly  succeeded.  They  force  insurrection  a  tout 
bout  de  champ T  l 

1  Lady  Sarah  Lennox's  Letters,  Vol.  II.,  p.  393. 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt3<Beralo  223 

A  scheme  had  been  set  on  foot  some  three  years 
earlier  for  raising  a  militia,  and  thereby  meeting  the 
disaffected  portion  of  the  population  on  their  own 
ground.  The  plan  had  been  cordially  taken  up  by 
the  country  gentlemen,  Lord  Edward  alluding  with 
some  coldness  to  the  part  played  by  his  brother  the 
Duke  in  the  matter. 

"  The  people  do  not  like  it  much,"  he  had  written 
at  the  time — "  that  is,  the  common  people  and  farmers 
— and  even  though  Leinster  has  it  " — he  was  referring 
in  especial  to  the  force  raised  in  County  Kildare — "  they 
do  not  thoroughly  come  into  it  ;  which  I  am  glad  of, 
as  it  shows  they  begin  not  to  be  entirely  led  by  names. 
I  am  sure,  if  any  person  else  had  taken  it,  it  could  not 
have  been  raised  at  all." 

At  the  present  juncture  the  Duke,  disgusted  with 
the  conduct  of  the  Government,  threw  up  his  com- 
mand, his  example  being  followed  by  his  brother- 
in-law  Lord  Bellamont,  and  his  aunt's  husband  Mr. 
Conolly  ;  while  Lord  Henry  FitzGerald,  like  Grattan, 
his  colleague  in  the  representation  of  the  City  of 
Dublin,  took  the  step  of  retiring  from  Parliament. 

Lord  Edward,  for  his  part,  had  not  only  declined, 
in  the  month  of  July,  to  seek  re-election,  on  the 
ground  that  free  elections  were  made  impossible  by 
the  system  of  martial  law  then  in  force,  but  had  finally, 
with  reckless  generosity,  thrown  in  his  lot,  his  future 
and  all  its  promise,  with  the  extreme  National  party. 

How  much  or  how  little  was  known  or  suspected 
by    Lord  Edward's   relations  of  the  extent  to    which 


224  %ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfitsGetralo 

he  had  become  implicated  in  revolutionary  schemes 
and  designs  must  remain  a  question.  That  he  should 
have  desired  to  keep  those  about  him,  more  especially 
his  mother,  in  ignorance  of  facts  which  would  have 
caused  them  serious  disquiet,  may  readily  be  believed  ; 
while  it  is  expressly  stated  that  when  visiting  London 
on  political  business,  in  the  year  1797,  he  carefully 
avoided  the  society  of  those  most  dear  to  him,  lest 
such  intercourse  should  cause  them  to  be  credited 
with  cognisance  of  the  perilous  transactions  in  which 
he  had  become  involved. 

But  while  thus  taking  thought  for  the  safety  of 
others  after  a  fashion  he  never  practised  where  his  own 
was  concerned,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that,  open 
and  unreserved  as  he  was,  to  a  fault,  he  should 
have  been  capable  of  maintaining  a  systematic  silence 
towards  those  nearest  to  him  in  blood  and  affection, 
with  whom  his  terms  had  been  those  of  unlimited 
confidence,  with  regard  to  the  objects  and  aims  which 
had  become  the  main  interest  of  his  life  and  the  govern- 
ing motive  of  his  actions.  It  is  at  any  rate  clear — to 
anticipate  events  for  a  moment — that  enough  was 
known  to  Mr.  Ogilvie  of  the  relations  of  his  stepson 
with  the  party  of  revolution  to  bring  him  over 
to  Dublin  in  the  spring  of  1798,  for  the  purpose  of 
making:  a  last  effort  to  detach  him  from  his  dangerous 
associates,  and  to  prevail  upon  him,  if  possible,  to 
quit  the  country. 

Mr.  Ogilvie,  on  this  occasion,  had  an  interview  with 
the  Chancellor.     Lord  Clare  evinced  a  desire,  evidently 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eovvaco  jfft3<3eralo  225 

sincere  at  the  moment,  to  save  from  the  consequences 
of  his  rashness  a  conspirator  who  not  only  possessed 
to  so  remarkable  a  degree  the  affections  of  the  people, 
but  was  also  connected  by  birth  and  blood  with  persons 
for  whom  he  himself  entertained  a  genuine  regard. 

"  For  God's  sake,"  he  urged,  "  get  this  young  man 
out  of  the  country.  The  ports  shall  be  thrown  open 
to  you,  and  no  hindrance  offered." 

It  was  not  Mr.  Ogilvie's  fault  that  the  proffered 
opportunity  of  evasion  was  not  embraced.  He  asked 
no  better  than  to  get  his  hot-headed  stepson  out  of 
the  country  ;  but  his  well-intentioned  intervention  was, 
as  might  have  been  expected,  fruitless.  Lord  Edward 
was  of  all  men  the  least  likely  to  leave  his  comrades  in 
the  lurch.  If  Mr.  Ogilvie  had  ever  indeed  hoped  to 
succeed  in  his  endeavour,  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  meeting  of  the  two  took  place  must  have 
convinced  him  of  the  futility  of  any  such  expectation. 
At  the  very  moment  when  his  stepfather  came  to  press 
upon  Lord  Edward  the  expediency  of  taking  advantage 
of  the  facilities  Lord  Clare  was  ready  to  afford  him 
for  gaining  a  place  of  safety,  a  meeting  of  the  heads  of 
the  United  Society  was  taking  place  in  his  house.  It 
was  from  assisting  at  their  deliberations  that  he  came 
out  to  receive  his  visitor,  and  to  demonstrate  to  him, 
by  an  argument  which  he  must  have  known  Mr. 
Ogilvie  would  find  himself  unable  to  refute,  that 
discussion  was  useless,  and  that  it  was  impossible  that 
he  should  pursue  the  proposed  course. 

"  It  is  out  of  the   question,"   he  said  ;   "  I  am   too 

15 


226  xife  of  Xoro  Eowarb  tfit3(Beralb 

deeply  pledged  to  these  men  to  be  able  to  withdraw 
with  honour." 

Accepting,  however,  the  anxiety  of  his  family  and 
of  the  Government  that  he  should  quit  Ireland  as 
proof  sufficient  that  misgivings  were  felt  as  to  the 
results  of  his  connection  with  the  extreme  National 
party,  the  incredulity  displayed  by  certain  of  his 
relations,  when  the  blow  finally  fell  and  the  warrant 
was  issued  for  his  apprehension,  with  regard  to  any 
participation  on  his  part  in  actual  revolutionary  designs, 
affords  evidence  that  they  had  remained  ignorant  up 
to  the  last  of  the  perilous  extent  to  which  he  had 
become  compromised.  It  may  be  that  affection,  the 
desire  to  spare  those  he  loved  the  anxiety  which  an 
acquaintance  with  the  true  state  of  affairs  would  have 
caused  them,  had  achieved  what  both  fear  and  prudence 
had  failed  to  effect ;  and  had,  in  a  measure  at  least, 
sealed  his  lips.  At  any  rate,  we  read  in  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Ogilvie  after  the  catastrophe  that  his  wife  was 
supported  by  her  confidence  in  her  son's  "  not  deserving 
anything  by  word  or  deed  "  ;  while  Lady  Sarah  Napier, 
describing  an  interview  with  a  visitor,  wrote,  "  I  said 
I  was  sure  he  was  innocent,  though  he  had  made  no 
secret  of  his  opinions,  but  that  nobody  dreaded  a 
revolution   more,  from  the  goodness  of  his  heart." 

That  Lord  Edward  might  dread  a  revolution  was 
possible.  It  was  also  more  than  possible  that  he  might 
regard  it  as  the  lesser  of  two  evils.  It  is,  at  any  rate, 
certain  that,  with  the  cognisance  of  his  friends  or  with- 
out it,  he  had  been  busily  preparing  one. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3<Beralo  227 

In  returning  to  the  history  of  these  preparations 
it  is  necessary  to  touch  upon  an  accusation  which, 
upon  the  evidence  supplied  by  two  informers,  has 
been  brought  against  Lord  Edward — that,  namely,  of 
complicity  in  counsels  including  assassination  amongst 
the  methods  to  be  employed  against  the  enemy.  It 
is  a  charge  wholly  escaped  by  few  revolutionists  ;  and 
the  evidence  upon  which  it  rests  in  the  present  case 
may  be  taken  for  what  it  is  worth. 

During  the  summer  of  1797  there  had  appeared  in 
Dublin — an  almost  inevitable  feature  of  the  times — a 
secretly  printed  newspaper,  called  the  Union  Star. 
It  not  only  constituted  itself  an  advocate  of  assassina- 
tion, but  designated  certain  persons  in  particular  as 
fit  objects  for  vengeance.  On  his  own  confession, 
a  man  named  Cox  was  sole  owner,  editor,  and  printer 
of  this  paper.  In  the  month  of  December  Cox 
turned  informer,  and  a  conversation  is  on  record  in 
which  he  stated  to  the  Under-Secretary,  Cooke,  that 
Lord  Edward  and  Arthur  O'Connor  had  been  frequently 
in  his  company,  being  cognisant  of  his  connection 
with  the  Star,  the  inference  intended  to  be  drawn 
being  of  course  their  approval  of  the  methods 
advocated  by  it. 

To  this  statement  O'Connor,  on  his  own  behalf, 
gave  an  explicit  denial,  asserting  that  the  Star  had 
been  set  up  during  one  of  his  own  terms  of 
imprisonment  ;  that  he  had  remonstrated  with  Cox  ; 
and  that  it  had  been  by  his  advice  that  the  latter  had 
given  himself  up  to  Government. 


228  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfitsOeraft 

By  the  time  that  the  affair  was  sifted  Lord 
Edward  was  probably  not  in  a  position  to  disprove 
any  calumny.  But  the  evidence  of  Cox — further 
declared  to  be  "  angry  with  the  leaders  of  the  United 
Irishmen " — will  be  scarcely  accepted  as  weighing 
heavily  in  the  balances  against  the  witness  borne 
both  by  Lord  Edward's  own  character  and  by  those 
who  knew  him  best  as  to  the  spirit  in  which  he 
carried  on  the  struggle. 

The  second  instance  of  a  corresponding  charge  is 
to  be  found  in  a  letter  written  at  the  end  of  this  same 
year  by  Lord  Camden  to  Mr.  Pelham.  McNally, 
the  informer,  is  there  quoted  as  declaring  that  the 
moderate  party  had  carried  their  point,  and  that  the 
intended  proscription  had  been  abandoned  ;  adding 
that  O'Connor,  Lord  Edward,  and  McNevin  had 
been  the  advocates  of  assassination,  the  rest  of 
moderate  measures. 

That  it  was  ever  Lord  Edward's  custom  to  favour 
the  bolder  policy,  whatever  might  be  the  particular 
question  at  issue,  is  clear.  It  will  also  be  seen  that 
when,  in  the  course  of  this  year,  a  scheme  was  in 
contemplation  having  for  its  object  the  capture  of 
the  Castle  and  the  barracks,  he  had  argued  in  favour 
of  its  adoption.  In  the  same  way,  at  a  later  date, 
he  supported  the  daring  project  of  attacking  the 
House  of  Lords  at  the  moment  when  the  peers  were 
to  be  assembled  in  it,  on  the  occasion  of  the  trial  of 
Lord  Kingston.  On  the  hypothesis,  therefore,  that  the 
scheme   alluded    to  by  the  informer  was  of  a  similar 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  fftt36eralo  229 

nature  to  these,  and  one  by  which  a  blow  would  have 
been  directed  at  the  heads  of  the  Government,  it  is 
likely  enough  to  have  commended  itself  to  him  ;  nor 
is  it  probable  that  he  would  have  experienced  more 
scruple  in  making  himself  master  of  the  persons 
of  the  Government  officials  than  was  felt  by  the 
authorities  themselves  with  regard  to  the  wholesale 
arrests  of  the  insurrectionary  Directory.  Assassination, 
however,  is  a  wholly  different  matter  ;  and  those 
acquainted  with  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald's  life  and 
character  will  appraise  the  testimony  which  places  him 
amongst  its  advocates  at  its  just  worth.  With  this 
notice  of  the  accusation  brought  against  him  and  the 
evidence  by  which  it  is  supported,  the  subject  may 
be  dismissed. 

Amongst  the  preparations  for  a  rising  now  being 
actively  carried  on,  negotiation  with  France,  with  a 
view  to  securing  her  co-operation,  was  naturally  an 
item  of  the  last  importance.  As  early  as  the  spring 
of  1797  a  Dublin  solicitor  named  Lewines  had  been 
accordingly  sent  to  Paris  as  the  accredited  agent  of  the 
United  Irish  party.  In  May  a  further  move  took 
place.  The  Republic  had  despatched  an  emissary  of 
its  own,  with  orders  to  visit  Ireland,  with  the  object  of 
obtaining  information  on  the  spot  as  to  the;true  condition 
of  the  country.  Owing,  however,  to  the  difficulty  of 
obtaining  the  necessary  passports,  it  was  found  im- 
possible for  the  envoy  to  carry  out  his  instructions,  or 
to  proceed  further  than  London.  Under  these  circum- 
stances Lord  Edward  was  deputed  to  meet  him  there, 


230         %iic  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffit3<3eralo 

as  the  authority  best  qualified  to  supply  the  desired 
information  as  to  the  military  organisation  and  resources 
of  the  Society  of  which  he  was  by  this  time  one  of  the 
recognised  and  accredited  chiefs. 

The  information  he  had  to  impart,  coloured  by 
his  sanguine  spirit,  must  have  been  encouraging  enough, 
so  far  as  numbers  were  concerned.  So  extensive  were 
the  military  preparations  that  it  was  computed  that 
in  Ulster  alone  no  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  men 
were  enrolled  and  regimented.  Such  was  the  eagerness 
of  these  northern  recruits  to  precipitate  an  appeal  to 
arms  that  it  was  only  by  the  authority  of  the  leaders 
of  the  whole  Society  that  they  were  prevailed  upon 
to  delay  taking  action  till  the  arrival  of  the  expected 
succours  from  France,  which  it  was  hoped  would 
supply  the  experience  and  skill  in  which  the  Irish 
were,  in  spite  of  their  ardour,  lamentably  lacking. 
In  all  parts  of  the  country,  too,  as  Lord  Moira  bore 
witness,  the  people,  rendered  desperate  by  their  suf- 
ferings, were  swelling  the  ranks  of  the  Union.  Had 
it  been  possible,  at  this  time,  when  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  people  was  at  fever  height  and  England  embarrassed 
by  foreign  foes  and  mutinies  at  home — had  it  been 
possible  to  strike  then,  the  history  of  the  rebellion 
might  have  been  a  different  one.  But  it  was  not  to 
be  ;  and  in  the  summer  an  opportunity  was  allowed 
to  slip  which  was  not  likely  again  to  present  itself. 

A  plan  of  insurrection  had  been  prepared,  mainly 
by  the  Ulster  leaders,  to  which  several  hundred  of 
the    troops    quartered    in    Dublin  were  ready  to  lend 


%itc  of  Xoro  Ebwaro  ffft3<3eralo  231 

their  co-operation  ;  while  a  deputation  from  the  militias 
of  Clare,  Kilkenny,  and  Kildare  had  made,  in  the 
name  of  their  respective  regiments,  the  offer  already 
mentioned,  to  seize  the  barracks  and  the  Castle.  It 
was  a  bold  scheme,  and,  carried  out,  might  have 
wholly  changed  the  face  of  affairs  ;  but,  in  spite  of 
Lord  Edward's  advocacy,  the  Dublin  Executive  decided 
against  its  adoption,  and  the  enterprise  was  relinquished, 
to  the  bitter  regret  of  those  who  had  seen  in  it 
Ireland's  best  chance  of  success.  "  It  seems  to  me," 
said  Tone,  writing  at  Paris,  ct  to  have  been  such  an 
occasion  missed  as  we  can  hardly  ever  see  return." 

He  might  well  say  so.  It  never  did  return. 
Meantime,  the  year  1797  drew  towards  its  close,  and 
no  blow  had  been  struck.  But  before  the  beginning 
of  1798  Lord  Edward  had  made  a  new  and  disastrous 
acquaintance. 


CHAPTER    XV 

Irishflnformers—  "  Battalion  of  Testimony  " — Leonard  McNally 
— Thomas  Reynolds — Meeting  between  ReynoldsandLord 
Edward— Reynolds  and  Neilson — Curran's  Invective. 

IT  was  an  evil  day  for  Lord  Edward — an  evil  day 
for  his  party  as  well — when,  some  time  in  the 
November  of  1797,  he  met,  on  the  steps  of  the  Four 
Courts,  a  gentleman  named  Thomas  Reynolds,  a  United 
Irishman  little  known  at  the  time,  but  who  quickly 
rose  to  an  unenviable  notoriety,  and  will  long  live  in 
the  memory  of  his  countrymen  as  the  betrayer  of 
his  party  and  his  chief. 

The  figure  of  the  informer  is  one  which,  like  a 
shabby  and  sordid  Mephistopheles,  is  never  long  absent 
from  the  scene  of  Irish  politics.  His  trade  was 
sedulously  fostered  and  encouraged  by  the  English 
system  of  Government,  and  to  it  may  be  traced  much 
of  the  alleged  sympathy  with  crime  and  genuine 
reluctance  to  lend  a  hand  in  bringing  the  criminal  to 
justice  which  has  been  so  often  used  as  a  reproach 
against  the  Irish  people.  "  The  police  are  paid  to 
catch  you,  and  well  paid"  a  priest  is  said  to  have  told 
a   member  of  his   flock  who,   weary  of  the  life  of  a 

232 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowavo  jfit3(Beralo  233 

hunted  man,  was  contemplating  the  surrender  of 
himself  into  the  hands  of  the  law.  "  The  informer 
is  bribed  to  track  you  down,  and  well  bribed"  he 
might  have  added  with  equal  truth.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  a  people  noted  for  its  instincts  of 
generosity  should  have  preferred  to  leave  the  work  of 
Government  to  be  performed  by  its  paid  instruments, 
and  should  have  shrunk  from  so  much  as  the  semblance 
of  participation  in  the  traffic. 

The  indiscriminate  horror  entertained  with  regard 
to  those,  whether  innocent  or  guilty,  who  were 
convicted  of  co-operation  with  the  natural  enemies 
of  their  race — unfortunately  identified  in  the  eyes 
of  the  people  with  the  administration  that  went 
by  he  name  of  justice — is  curiously  and  signally 
illustrated  by  an  incident  which  took  place  about  this 
time.  Two  sisters  named  Kennedy,  mere  children  of 
fourteen  and  fifteen  years  old,  and  supposed  to  be 
heiresses,  were  carried  off  from  their  home  by  a  gang 
of  ruffians,  to  two  of  whom  they  were  forcibly  married. 
When,  some  weeks  later,  the  men  were  made  prisoners 
and  brought  to  trial,  the  unfortunate  girls  were  induced 
to  consent  to  bear  witness  against  them,  chiefly,  as 
it  appears,  in  revenge  for  a  brutal  blow  bestowed  upon 
one  of  them  by  her  captor.  The  result  of  the  trial 
was  the  hanging  of  the  men  and  the  pensioning  of 
their  victims.  But  so  passionately  opposed  was  public 
sentiment,  even  in  such  an  instance  as  this,  to  the 
conduct  of  the  approver,  that  demonstrations  of  hostility 
greeted    the    unhappy  sisters  wherever  they  ventured 


234  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfft3<Beralo 

to  show  their  faces  ;  that  when  they  subsequently- 
married,  the  misfortunes  of  the  one  were  regarded  by 
the  people  in  the  light  of  a  judgment  upon  her  ;  and, 
stranger  still,  the  husband  of  the  other  was  infected 
to  such  a  degree  by  the  popular  superstition  that  he 
imagined  himself  haunted  by  the  spectre  of  his  dead 
rival,  and  never  dared  to  sleep  without  a  light  in 
his  room. 

Of  the  brutality  engendered  by  the  loathing,  whole- 
some in  its  origin,  of  the  trade,  an  example  is  given  in 
a  story  told  by  an  aged  lady,  Mrs.  O'Byrne,  who 
remembered  throughout  life — as  well  she  might — 
being  taken  as  a  child,  by  the  servant  to  whose  care 
she  had  been  entrusted,  to  the  Anatomical  Museum 
of  Trinity  College,  where  she  witnessed  a  performance 
consisting  of  a  dance,  executed  by  means  of  a  system 
of  pulleys,  by  the  skeleton  of  the  informer  "  Jemmy 
O'Brien."  The  husband  of  the  woman  who  took  her 
little  charge  to  this  ghastly  entertainment  had,  it 
subsequently  transpired,  been  done  to  death  by 
O'Brien,  afterwards  himself  hanged  for  murder,  and 
she  took  a  grim   pleasure  in  the  show. 

Another,  and  even  more  singular,  instance  of  the 
feeling  with  which  the  class  was  regarded,  lasting  down 
almost  to  our  own  day  and  shared  by  the  servants  of 
their  employers,  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
found  necessary  at  the  "Informers'  Home,"  as  it  was 
popularly  called — an  institution  kept  up  by  Govern- 
ment, and  said  to  be  a  relic  of  the  a  Battalion  of 
Testimony " — to   lodge  the    police    in    charge    of  the 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eovvaro  jfit3<3eralo  235 

place  in  a  hut  apart,  the  men  objecting  to  the  de- 
gradation of  living  under  the  same  roof  as  those  they 
were  set  to  guard. 

Taking  into  account  this  condition  of  public  senti- 
ment, it  may  be  imagined  that  the  position  of  the  paid 
political  spy  was  not  without  its  disadvantages,  and 
that  by  the  more  timorous  among  the  body  their  wages 
were  not  altogether  lightly  earned.  It  was  not  every 
villain  who  was  so  constituted  as  to  be  able  to  ply  his 
craft  with  the  sang-froid  of  the  celebrated  barrister 
McNally,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  figures  of  the 
time,  to  whom  must  be  allowed  the  honour  of  having 
carried  the  art  of  treachery  to  its  highest  point  of 
perfection ;  who  could  move  even  Curran  to  tears  by 
his  eloquence  on  behalf  of  one  of  the  very  men  he  had 
betrayed  ;  who,  having  first  sold  Emmet  and  then 
acted  as  his  counsel  in  court,  could  visit  him  in  prison 
on  the  day  of  his  execution,  and  piously  console  him 
with  the  prospect  of  his  approaching  meeting  with  his 
mother  in  another  world  ;  and  who,  finally,  carried  on 
his  course  of  deception  with  unrivalled  success  till  the 
day  of  his  death,  in  1820,  when,  to  crown  all,  having 
passed  for  a  Protestant  in  life,  he  squared  his  accounts 
with  Heaven  by  calling  in  a  priest  and  receiving  from 
him  the  sacraments  of  the  Church.1 

For  such  a  man  one  cannot  but  feel  that  there  was 
actual  enjoyment  in  the  exercise  of  his  art.  But 
other    professors    of    it    were    not    equally    fortunate, 

1  The  younger  Curran,  in  his  Life  of  his  father,  pays  an  enthusiastic 
tribute  to  this  friend  of  forty-three  years. 


236  Xlfe  ot  Xorfc  EDwarfc  jfft3<3eralt> 

and  even  among  the  members  of  the  Battalion  of 
Testimony  penitents  were  to  be  found.  Thus  an 
Englishman  of  the  name  of  Bird,  who  had  been 
the  means  of  committing  a  number  of  obnoxious 
persons  to  prison,  sickened  of  his  trade,  threw  it 
up  in  disgust,  and  published  an  account  of  his  trans- 
actions with  the  Castle  ;  while  Newell,  another  of  the 
brotherhood,  in  a  curious  letter  to  his  employer,  the 
Under-Secretary,  Cooke,  accused  him,  not  without 
dramatic  skill,  of  his  moral  ruin. 

"  Though  I  cannot  deny  being  a  villain,"  he  said, 
"  I  hope  clearly  to  prove  that  I  had  the  honour  of 
being  made  one  by  you." 

Returning  to  Mr.  Thomas  Reynolds,  it  would  not 
appear  that  this  gentleman,  at  any  rate  at  first,  found 
the  branch  of  business  in  which  he  had  engaged  alto- 
gether to  his  liking.  He  was  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
six  at  the  time  of  his  meeting  with  Lord  Edward. 
Brought  up  by  the  Jesuits,  he  had  carried  on  the 
trade  of  a  silk  manufacturer  in  Dublin.  Lately,  by 
means  of  some  land  leased — it  is  said  on  very 
favourable  terms — from  the  Duke  of  Leinster,  a  distant 
connection  on  his  mother's  side,  he  had  attained  to 
the  position  of  a  country  gentleman  in  the  county 
of  Kildare. 

His  political  antecedents  were,  from  the  popular 
point  of  view,  unimpeachable.  He  had  been  a 
member  of  the  Catholic  Committee,  had  represented 
Dublin  in  the  Catholic  Convention  of  1792,  and  had 
recently    been    initiated    into    the    Society   of    United 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowavo  tfit3(Beralo  237 

Irishmen,  though,  if  his  son  is  to  be  credited,  in 
ignorance  of  its  revolutionary  character.  He  was  also 
— a  further  guarantee — married  to  the  sister-in-law  of 
Wolfe  Tone. 

This  was  the  man  who — also  on  his  son's  authority — 
was  in  1798  hailed  as  the  saviour  of  his  country,  and 
courted  and  caressed  by  all  who  were  not  actually 
engaged  in  the  rebellion.  Wealth  and  honours  were 
voted  to  him  ;  but,  satisfied  with  having  done  his  duty, 
he  declined  them  all  ;  and,  honourable  and  upright 
public  servant  as  he  was,  found  himself  at  a  later  date 
shaken  off  and  discountenanced  by  the  very  persons, 
with  one  or  two  exceptions,  by  whom  he  had-  been 
employed  ;  retiring  finally  to  France,  there  to  find 
consolation  for  the  ingratitude  of  the  great  in  a  small 
number  of  friends. 

Thus  far  Mr.  Thomas  Reynolds,  junior,  fired  with 
filial  enthusiasm.  A  less  ornate  account  of  his  father 
would  describe  him  as,  though  unquestionably  an 
informer,  not  one  of  that  lowest  type  to  whom  treachery 
is  a  trade  by  which  to  make  a  living,  who  deliberately 
insinuates  himself  into  the  confidence  of  his  comrades 
in  order  to  betray  them,  and  who,  to  quote  Curran's 
eloquent  invective,  "  measures  his  value  by  the  coffins 
of  his  victims,  and  in  the  field  of  evidence  appreciates 
his  fame  as  the  Indian  warrior  does  in  fight — by  the 
number  of  scalps  with  which  he  can  swell  his 
triumphs." 

It  is  true  that  Moore  is  inclined  to  include 
Reynolds  in  this  category,  disposing  of  him  in  summary 


238  %itc  of  Xoro  Ebwaro  tfit3<Beralo 

fashion  as  a  worthless  member  of  the  conspiracy 
who,  pressed  for  cash,  availed  himself  of  this  means 
of  discharging  his  debts.  It  is  also  undeniable  that 
the  sum  of  five  hundred  guineas  was  paid  over  to  him 
by  Government.  But  a  careful  examination  of  evidence 
tends  to  make  it  probable  that  money  was  not  his 
principal  object,  and  that  this  particular  informer 
belonged  to  a  different  grade  in  the  profession.  He 
was  rather  one  of  those  persons  who,  finding  them- 
selves— in  the  first  instance  perhaps  involuntarily — in 
possession  of  facts  they  conceive  it  their  duty  to  make 
known,  lack  courage  to  act  openly,  and  having  laid  the 
foundation  of  their  future  career  by  the  initial  act 
of  giving  clandestine  information  against  their  com- 
rades, experience  the  truth  of  the  saying  that  "  ce  nest 
que  le  premier  pas  qui  coute"  and  continue  to  court  and 
invite  the  confidence  of  those  they  have  betrayed,  for 
the  express  purpose  of  making  use  of  it  against 
them. 

When  Lord  Edward  met  Mr.  Reynolds  on  that  ill- 
fated  November  day,  the  two  were  barely  acquainted, 
owing,  as  the  younger  Reynolds  explains,  to  Lord 
Edward's  recent  absences  from  Ireland.  Falling  in 
with  him,  however,  on  the  steps  of  the  Four  Courts, 
and  aware  of  his  reputation  as  a  trustworthy  member 
of  the  Society,  the  latter  entered  into  conversation 
with  the  future  informer,  and  before  they  parted  a 
meeting  had  been  arranged,  to  take  place  on  the 
following  day  at  Reynolds's  house.  It  was  then  pro- 
posed that  he  should   temporarily  fill  Lord   Edward's 


%itc  ot  %ovb  £owar&  3fit36ecalb  239 

own  post,  as  Colonel  of  the  United  Irish  Society 
for  the  Barony  of  Kilkea  and  Moon,  in  which  was 
situated  the  property  he  had  recently  leased  from  the 
Duke. 

According  to  Reynolds's  evidence,  given  at  a  later 
date  before  the  Secret  Committee,  he  did  not  at  first 
take  kindly  to  the  arrangement.  He  furnished  the 
Committee  with  an  account  of  the  conversation  between 
himself  and  Lord  Edward  ;  of  his  own  attempts  to 
confine  it  to  general  subjects,  to  avoid  committing 
himself,  and  to  put  Lord  Edward  off. 

The  young  leader,  it  seems,  was  unwisely  pertinacious. 
He  assured  the  informer  that  he  would  himself  share 
with  him  every  danger,  and  "  Deponent  on  this  con- 
sented," so  the  statement  runs  ;  falling,  it  may  be, 
under  the  charm  of  his  companion,  in  whom  he  felt  a 
pride,  as  in  some  remote  manner  a  kinsman  of  his  own, 
and  possibly  fired  for  the  moment  with  some  spark  of 
contagious  enthusiasm. 

He  had  still,  however,  objections  to  urge.  He  did 
not  think — so  he  told  Lord  Edward,  who  probably 
knew  it  far  better  than  he — that  the  United  men 
could  stand  in  battle  against  the  King's  troops.  One 
may  believe  that  the  answer  returned  by  his  chief,  to 
the  effect  that,  assistance  from  France  being  expected, 
some  of  the  Irish  would  certainly  join  the  foreign 
lines  and  learn  discipline  under  their  allies,  was  not 
altogether  calculated  to  reassure  the  timorous  conscience 
and  uneasy  mind  of  the  reluctant  recruit,  unlikely 
to  look  forward  with    the    same    cheerful   anticipation 


240  Xife  of  Xoro  Eovvaro  ffft3(Beralo 

as  his  leader  to  a  French  invasion.  At  all  events,  it 
appears  that  no  definite  arrangement  was  arrived  at 
on  this  occasion,  though  the  interview  must  have  been 
on  the  whole  satisfactory,  since  at  its  conclusion 
Lord  Edward  remarked  that  there  was  an  honest  man 
in  the  county  of  Kildare,  of  whom  he  gave  Reynolds 
the  name,  and  to  whom  he  referred  him  for  further 
instructions  as  to  the  duties  of  his  new  post. 

Reynolds's  own  honesty,  if  it  had  ever  had  any 
existence  except  in  the  imagination  of  his  open-hearted 
chief — so  confiding  by  nature  that  it  must  have 
appeared  to  more  astute  men  a  waste  of  their  talents 
to  spend  them  in  entrapping  him — was  not  of  long 
continuance.  For  family  reasons — we  are  not  told 
of  what  nature — and  influenced  by  consideration  for 
the  FitzGeralds,  represented  by  Lord  Edward, 
Reynolds  finally  decided  upon  accepting  the  offered 
post,  was  in  consequence  initiated  into  the  pro- 
jects and  schemes  of  the  United  Irish  leaders,  and 
learnt,  according  to  his  own  declaration,  for  the 
first  time,  their  revolutionary  character. 1  A  timid 
man,  and  afraid  either  to  rouse  suspicion  against 
himself  by  severing  his  connection  with  the  Society, 
or,  remaining  in  it,  to  co-operate  with  its  designs  ; 
entertaining,  moreover,  scruples  of  conscience  as  to 
his  duty  in  the  dilemma  in  which  he  was  placed,  he 
selected  the  middle  course  of  retaining  his  position, 
but  retaining  it   as  a  Government  agent. 

1  It   is   difficult   to    reconcile   this    statement   with   the   account   of 
the  conversation  between  Lord  Edward  and  the  informer. 


Xifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit3<Beralo         241 

His  son,  it  is  true,  indignantly  denies  that  he 
deliberately  obtained  information  for  the  purpose  of 
betraying  it,  and  instances  in  disproof  of  the  calumny 
the  fact  of  his  father's  having  excused  himself  from 
attendance  at  a  meeting  of  the  Provincial  Committee, 
held  in  February,  1 798,  to  which  he  had  been  summoned, 
and  where  he  would  doubtless  have  been  placed  in  the 
possession  of  important  facts.  But,  unfortunately  for 
the  argument,  it  is  refuted  by  Reynolds's  own  evidence, 
in  which  he  is  stated  to  have  informed  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  proceedings  of  this  very  meeting,  "  which 
Deponent  got  from  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald " — a 
safer  method  of  obtaining  information  than  that  of 
personal  attendance  in  Dublin.  It  is,  however,  fair  to 
say  that  it  was  only  after  that  meeting  that  he  took 
the  step  of  communicating  with  the  authorities ;  and 
that  it  was  possibly  true  that  it  was  done  on  an  un- 
premeditated impulse.  It  must  also  be  added,  in 
justice  to  a  man  whose  record  is  black  enough 
in  any  case,  that  he  seems  to  have  been  actuated  by 
no  personal  animosities  ;  that  in  the  first  instance 
he  had  even  strangely  hoped  to  have  avoided 
the  incrimination  of  individuals  ;  and  that  to 
the  last  he  showed  an  inclination  to  screen  Lord 
Edward. 

He  must  have  possessed  talents  of  his  own  for  his 
particular  line  of  business,  though  of  a  different 
character  to  those  of  McNally  ;  for  up  to  the  very 
last  he  possessed  the  full  confidence  of  his  chief;  and, 
carrying  his  life  in  his  hand,  he  seems  to  have  retained 

16 


242  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3<3eralo 

presence  of  mind  under  circumstances  which  might 
well  have  caused  him  to  lose  it.  A  story  is  told 
by  Curran's  son,  on  the  authority  of  an  eminent  Irish 
barrister,  of  a  midnight  meeting  in  the  streets  of 
Dublin  between  Reynolds  and  Neilson,  a  member  of 
the  conspiracy  possessed  of  extraordinary  physical 
strength  and  an  excitability  of  temperament  bordering 
on  insanity,  of  whom  more  will  be  heard  hereafter. 
On  this  man  some  suspicion  of  the  truth  had 
glimmered.  Forcing  the  informer  to  follow  him 
to  a  dark  passage  in  what  were  then  the  liberties  of 
Dublin,  he  presented  a  pistol  at  his  breast,  with  the 
question, 

"  What  should  I  do  to  the  villain  who  could 
insinuate  himself  into  my  confidence  for  the  purpose 
of  betraying   me  ?  " 

"  You  should  shoot  him  through  the  heart,"  was 
Reynolds's  answer,   made  with  ready  effrontery. 

The  reply,  the  story  goes  on  to  relate,  so  struck 
his  assailant,  that,  though  his  suspicions  were  not 
wholly  removed,   he  let  the  informer  go.1 

Whatever  may  be  the  opinion  formed  of  Mr. 
Reynolds  and  his  performances,  he  must  not  be  refused 
the  honour  of  having  provided  Curran  with  the 
opportunity  of  achieving  a  signal  triumph  of  eloquence  ; 

1  This  anecdote  is  denied  by  Reynolds's  son,  who  substitutes  for 
it  one  of  his  own,  differing  rather  in  the  letter  than  in  the  spirit ; 
according  to  which  the  informer,  charged  by  Neilson  with  treachery, 
flung  himself  upon  the  accuser  with  the  exclamation,  "And  dare  you 
say  that  ?  "  The  testimony  of  young  Reynolds  in  his  father's  favour 
has  been  shown,  for  the  rest,  to  be  not  unimpeachable. 


Xife  of  Xoro  j£owaro  tfit3(5eralo  243 

and  this  digression — scarcely  irrelevant  when  we 
take  into  account  the  part  played  by  the  subject  of 
it,  though  behind  the  scenes,  in  the  closing  chapter 
of  Lord  Edward's  life — may  fitly  be  terminated  by 
a  quotation  from  the  speech  in  which,  like  a  fly  in 
amber,  the  memory  of  the  traitor  is  preserved.  It 
was  in  connection  with  the  Bill  of  Attainder  brought, 
after  his  death,  against  Lord  Edward,  that  this  speech 
was  made. 

"  I  have  been  asked,"  said  the  great  orator,  "  whether 
I  have  any  defensive  evidence.  .  .  .  Where  am  I  to 
seek  it  ?  I  have  often  of  late  gone  to  the  dungeons 
of  the  captive,  but  never  have  I  gone  to  the  grave 
of  the  dead  ;  nor,  in  truth,  have  I  ever  before  been 
at  the  trial  of  a  dead  man.  I  offer,  therefore,  no 
evidence  upon  this  enquiry,  against  the  perilous 
example  of  which  I  do  protest  in  the  name  of  the 
dead  father  whose  memory  is  sought  to  be  dishonoured, 
and  of  his  infant  orphans  whose  bread  is  sought  to 
be  taken  away.  Some  observations,  but  a  few,  upon 
the  evidence  of  the  informer  I  will  make.  I  do 
believe  all  he  has  admitted  against  himself.  I  do 
verily  believe  him  in  that  instance,  even  though  I  heard 
him  assert  it  on  his  oath — by  his  own  confession  an 
informer  and  a  bribed  informer — a  man  whom  respect- 
able witnesses  had  sworn  in  a  court  of  justice  upon 
their  oath  not  to  be  credible  on  his  oath.  .  .  .  See, 
therefore,  if  there  be  any  one  assertion  to  which 
credit  can  be  given,  except  this — that  he  has  sworn 
and     forsworn     that    he    is    a    traitor,    that    he    has 


244         Xife  ot  XorD  Eowarfc  fit3$erald 

received  five  hundred  guineas  to  be  an  informer,  and 
that  his  general  reputation  is,  to  be  utterly  unworthy 
of  credit." 

With  which    denunciation   Mr.    Thomas    Reynolds 
may  be  for  the  present  dismissed. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

1798 

Lord  Edward's  Doom  Approaching — His  Portrait  at  this  Date 
— Personal  Attraction — Differences  among  the  Leaders — 
Delay  of  French  Assistance — Arrest  of  O'Connor — His 
Acquittal  and  Imprisonment — National  Prospects — 
Reynolds's  Treachery — Arrest  of  the  Committee. 


SEVENTEEN  hundred  and  ninety-eight — that 
year  of  disaster — was  come.  The  crisis  was  at 
hand,  Lord  Edward's  doom  close  upon  him.  The 
winding-sheet,  to  the  eyes  of  the  seer,  would  have 
passed  his  heart  and  risen  around  his  throat. 

And  when  I  meet  thee  again,  O  King, 

That  of  death  hast  such  sore  drouth, 
Except  thou  turn  thee  again  on  the  shore, 
The  winding-sheet  shall  have  moved  once  more, 

And  covered  thine  eyes  and  mouth. 

It  was  not  in  Lord  Edward's  nature,  even  had  he 
foreseen  the  fate  that  was  awaiting  him,  to  turn  aside 
from  it.  He  might  be  a  weak  man — in  many  respects 
he  was  undoubtedly  not  a  strong  one  ;  but  honour 
and  loyalty  were  not  weak  within  him,  nor  was  his 
the  want  of  strength  which  leads  to  the  betrayal  of  a 
comrade  or  a  cause. 

24s 


246  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffitsCBeralo 

Evidence  has  already  been  quoted  to  show  that, 
almost  to  the  last,  the  Government,  though  troubled 
by  no  scruples  with  regard  to  his  confederates,  would 
gladly  have  seen  themselves  relieved  from  the  odium 
attaching  to  whomsoever  should  lay  hands  upon  a  Fitz- 
Gerald,  and  would  willingly  have  afforded  him  every 
loophole  for  escape.  But  no  dream  of  the  possibility 
of  availing  himself  of  such  chances  of  evasion  would 
have  crossed  Lord  Edward's  mind.  He  loved  life, 
indeed,  and  would  fain  have  seen  good  days,  but  not 
at  the  cost  of  what  was  in  his  eyes  a  more  important 
matter  than  life.  As  he  had  told  his  stepfather,  he 
was  pledged  to  the  cause  and  he  was  pledged  to  the 
men ;  and  to  both  he  was  unfalteringly  true. 

Yet  there  must  have  been  anxious  moments  at 
Kildare  Lodge.  Another  baby  was  expected  with  the 
spring ;  and  Pamela,  in  spite  of  the  determination  she 
had  expressed  to  Madame  de  Genlis  to  remain  in 
ignorance  of  her  husband's  political  designs,  cannot 
but  have  been  aware  to  some  degree  of  what 
was  doing.  Lady  Sarah,  indeed,  writing  shortly  after 
Lord  Edward's  death,  expressly  states  that  his  wife 
had  never  ceased  attempting  to  use  her  influence  for 
the  purpose  of  persuading  him  of  the  ill  effects  of  a 
revolution — "  which  she,  poor  soul,  dreaded  beyond 
all  earthly  evils "  ;  and  however  imperfect  was  her 
information  as  to  the  extent  and  scope  of  the  con- 
spiracy, she  must  have  known  enough  to  have  caused 
her  to  look  back  with  vain  regret  to  those  happy 
earlier  days  when  theory  had  not  yet  been  reduced  to 


H.  Hamilton. 


J.  Heath. 


Lord  Edward  FitzGerald. 


page  247. 


Xite  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit36eralb  247 

practice,  and  Lord  Edward,  instead  of  preparing  and 
organising  rebellion,  was  tending  his  mother's 
flowers  at  Frescati.  It  is  impossible,  calling  to  mind 
the  image  of  the  charming,  slight,  legere  child  whose 
fate  was  linked  with  his,  not  to  be  sorry  for  her,  as 
she  entreated  his  friends  to  take  care  of  him. 

No  doubt  they  did  their  best.  But  there  is  a  point 
beyond  which  the  care  of  friends  is  of  small  avail,  and 
in  Lord  Edward's  case  it  was  not  far  off. 

He  was  at  this  time  in  his  thirty-fifth  year,  of 
middle  height,  or  rather  below  it — he  was  not  above 
five  feet  seven — and  there  would  seem  to  have  been 
something  still  boyish  about  the  agile  figure,  the 
fresh  colouring,  and  the  elastic  lightness  of  his  tread. 
His  eyes  were  grey,  set  under  arched  brows  and  shaded 
and  softened  by  the  long  black  lashes  which  remained 
in  Moore's  memory  more  than  thirty  years  after  the 
solitary  occasion  upon  which  he  saw  their  owner. 
His  hair  was  of  so  dark  a  brown  as  to  incline  to  black. 

In  manner — the  description  is  that  of  the  feather- 
merchant  Murphy  in  whose  house  he  was  finally 
captured — he  was  "  as  playful  and  humble  as  a  child, 
as  mild  and  timid  as  a  lady  "  ;  while  a  very  different 
authority,  his  cousin  Lord  Holland,  dwelling  upon 
the  charm  which  "  fascinated  his  slightest  acquaintance 
and  disarmed  the  rancour  of  even  his  bitter  opponents," 
describes  his  "  gaiety  of  manner,  without  reserve  but 
without  intrusion,"  and  his  "  careless  yet  inoffensive 
intrepidity   both  in  conversation  and  in  action." 

Such,  outwardly,  was  the  man  who  was  to  lead  the 


248  %iic  of  Xoro  Eowavb  tftt3(3eralo 

desperate  attempt  to  free  Ireland    from    the  yoke   by 
which  she  was  oppressed. 

To  the  spirit  in  which  the  enterprise  was  under- 
taken Lord  Holland  again  bears  witness.  No 
personal  resentment  had  a  share  in  it.  Events, 
personal  and  public,  stirring  some  men  to  gloomy 
and  resentful  bitterness,  had  no  power  to  alter  the 
sweetness  of  his  disposition.  He  loathed  the 
measures  ;  he  forgave  the  men.  "  Indignant  as  he 
was  at  the  oppression  of  his  country,  and  intemper- 
ate in  his  language  of  abhorrence  at  the  cruelties 
exercised  in  Ireland,  I  could  never  find  that  there 
was  a  single  man  against  whom  he  felt  the  slightest 
personal  animosity.  He  made  allowance  for  the 
motives  and  even  temptations  of  those  whose  actions 
he  detested." 

This  sunny-hearted  and  generous  readiness  to  be- 
lieve the  best  of  all  mankind  not  only  bound  to  him 
those  whose  cause  was  his  own,  but  attracted  towards 
the  revolutionary  leader  many  whose  sympathies  would 
naturally  have  lain  in  a  different  direction. 

Thus  it  was  observed  by  a  frequenter  of  his  house 
that  men  were  not  seldom  to  be  met  at  it  in  whom, 
from  their  position  with  regard  to  Government,  inter- 
course with  one  so  obnoxious  to  the  authorities  must 
have  implied  a  considerable  sacrifice  of  political 
timidity  to  personal  attachment.  In  particular, 
mention    is    made    of  a    visit   from   a   certain  Colonel 

L (it    was  doubtless  still  expedient,  at   the  time 

of  writing,  to  suppress  names),  who,  entering  together 


%\U  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3Fit3<3eralb  249 

with  two  other  men  unknown  to  the  narrator  but 
believed  by  him  to  be  members  of  Parliament,  placed 
on  the  table  a  large  canvas  purse  containing  gold  ;  and, 
smiling  at  Lord  Edward,  observed,  "  There,  my 
lord,  is  provision  for " 

It  was  this  power  of  personal  influence,  the  aptitude 
for  gaining  affection  and  inspiring  confidence,  the 
result  rather  of  his  winning  and  lovable  personality 
than  of  any  marked  talents  or  ability,  which  made  the 
young  leader  a  dangerous  enemy,  and  rendered  him 
so  valuable  an  auxiliary  to  the  cause  with  which  he 
had  identified  himself. 

All  was  by  this  time,  provisionally  at  least,  arranged. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1796  the  military  organisa- 
tion of  the  United  Irishmen  had  been  adopted  in 
Leinster.  Lord  Edward  and  Arthur  O'Connor  had 
constituted  the  first  Directory  of  that  province  ;  while 
the  second  included,  in  addition  to  these  two,  Jackson, 
Oliver  Bond,  and  McNevin.  Lord  Edward,  besides, 
practically  filled  the  post — though  it  is  doubtful 
whether  he  was  ever  formally  elected  to  it — of  head 
of  the  Military  Committee,  a  body  whose  duty  it 
was  to  prepare  for  co-operation  with  the  expected 
succours  from  France,  and  to  arrange  a  general  plan 
of  insurrection. 

The  principal  point  upon  which  opinion  among 
the  Chiefs  of  the  Union  differed,  and  it  divided  their 
counsels  to  a  dangerous  extent,  was  still  the  question 
whether  it  was  expedient  to  await  the  arrival  of  the 
promised    assistance  from  abroad   before  attempting  a 


250  %ifc  of  %otb  iBbwavb  tftt3<Beralfc 

rising  at  home,  or  to  act  independently  of  foreign 
support.  In  this  matter  Lord  Edward,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  lent  all  the  weight  of  his  influence 
to  the  advocacy  of  the  bolder  course,  O'Connor 
being  also  in  favour  of  it.  Emmet  and  McNevin, 
on  the  other  hand,  both  members  of  the  Supreme 
Executive,  elected  from  the  Provincial  Directories, 
gave  their  vote  for  the  more  prudent  counsels 
of  delay. 

A  curious  and  characteristic  conversation  is  recorded 
by  Madden,  on  the  authority  of  the  man  with 
whom  it  took  place.  The  pleading  of  Lord  Edward 
for  immediate  action,  independent  of  French  suc- 
cour, recalls  that  of  the  patriarch  on  behalf  of 
the  doomed  city  of  Sodom.  In  support  of  the 
opinion  entertained  by  him  that  the  moment  for 
action  was  at  hand  he  had  cited  returns  from 
which  it  appeared  that  one  hundred  thousand  men 
might  be  expected  to  take  the  field.  The  objector, 
also  a  United  Irishman,  but  one  of  a  less  sanguine 
temperament,  pointed  out  the  vital  distinction  to 
be  made  between  numbers  on  paper  and  numbers  in 
the  field,  and  frankly  owned  that,  pledged  to  the 
Union  as  he  himself  was,  he  would  not  be  found  in 
the  ranks  of  men  who  should  raise  the  revolutionary 
standard  in  the  absence  of  the  conditions  essential, 
in  his  opinion,  to  success.  Fifteen  thousand  French 
soldiers,  he  argued,  had  been  considered  necessary 
at  the  time  when  the  enterprise  had  first  been  con- 
templated ;    and    owing    to    the    number    of    English 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  fftt3<3eralo  251 

troops  now  quartered  in  the  country,  such  an  auxiliary 
force  was,  in  a  still  greater  degree,  indispensable 
at  present. 

"  What  !  "  answered  Lord  Edward,  "  would  you 
attempt  nothing  without  these  fifteen  thousand  men  ? 
Would  you  not  be  satisfied  with  ten  thousand  ?  " 

"  I  would,  my  lord,"  was  the  reply,  "  if  the  aid  of 
the  fifteen  thousand  could  not  be  procured." 

"  But,"  urged  the  young  leader,  "  even  if  the  ten 
could  not  be  procured,  what  would  you  do  then  ?  " 

"  I  would  then,"  was  the  answer,  "  accept  of  five, 
my  lord." 

"  But,"  confessed  Lord  Edward,  "  we  cannot  get 
five  ;  and  when  you  know  that  we  cannot,  will  you 
desert  our   cause  ?  " 

"  My  lord,"  was  the  answer,  "  if  five  thousand 
men  could  not  be  obtained,  I  would  seek  the  assistance 
of  a  sufficient  number  of  French  officers  to  lead 
the  men  ;  and  with  three  hundred  of  these  we  might 
be  justified  perhaps  in  making  an  effort  for  inde- 
pendence, but  not  without  them."  "  You,  my  lord," 
he  added  afterwards,  "  are  the  only  military  man 
amongst  us  ;  but  you  cannot  be  everywhere  you 
are  required  ;  and  the  misfortune  is,  you  delegate 
your  authority  to  those  who  you  think  are  like 
yourself.  But  they  are  not  like  you  ;  we  have  no 
such  persons  amongst   us." 

They  were  wholesome  truths,  frankly  uttered.  And 
there  is  little  doubt  that  the  charge  was  true.  It  was 
likely  enough  that  the  young  commander-in-chief  did 


252  Xife  of  Xoro  Bowaro  jftt3(BeralD 

delegate  his  authority  unwisely  ;  but  how,  except 
unwisely,  could  he,  under  the  circumstances  mentioned, 
have  delegated  it  ?  And  the  weeks  crept  on,  and 
French  aid,  whether  of  officers  or  men,  was  not 
sent. 

Various  causes  had  contributed  to  the  delay. 
General  Hoche,  the  commander  of  the  expedition 
ending  so  disastrously,  had  died  a  few  months 
after  its  failure,  and  in  him  the  Irish  cause  had  lost 
a  staunch  and  zealous  advocate.  Bonaparte,  on  the 
contrary,  on  whom  the  destinies  of  Europe  increasingly 
hung,  had  never  testified  any  cordiality  towards  the 
project.  The  exceptional  opportunity  which  the 
enemies  of  England  might  have  found  in  the  mutiny 
in  the  British  fleet  had  been  permitted  to  pass 
unutilised  ;  and  no  immediate  prospect  of  succour 
from  abroad  was  apparent. 

On  the  other  hand,  Lewines  still  remained  at  Paris  ; 
where  his  position  was  such  that  Lord  Clare,  in  a 
speech  made  in  the  Irish  House  of  Lords,  attributed 
the  ill  success  of  the  British  peace  negotiations  largely 
to  his  influence  ;  thus  crediting  the  representative 
of  the  United  Irishmen  with  a  weight  he  could 
hardly  have  possessed.  However  that  might  be,  the 
agent  was  given  reason  to  hope  that  the  matter  would 
be  brought  to  a  successful  issue,  and  it  was  doubtless 
with  the  object  of  hastening  that  result  that  O'Connor 
was  despatched  to  France  at  the  beginning  of  the 
year. 

It  was    not  likely    that  the    envoy    of  the    United 


%\fc  ot  %oxb  Eowarfc  tftt36eralo  253 

Irish  body  would  have  been  permitted  to  reach  his 
destination  in  safety.  O'Connor  was  a  marked  man, 
who  had  spent  six  months  of  the  preceding  year 
in  prison,  and  had,  since  his  release,  been  engaged, 
in  conjunction  with  Lord  Edward  and  others,  in  con- 
ducting the  Press  newspaper,  the  organ  of  their  party 
in  Dublin.  The  Government  was  also  already  in 
possession  of  information,  furnished  by  McNally,  as 
to  his  departure  from  Ireland,  and  the  mission  upon 
which  he  had  been  sent.  But  even  had  it  been 
otherwise,  the  arrangements  for  the  journey  appear 
to  have  been  made  for  the  express  purpose  of  attract- 
ing the  attention  of  the  authorities,  and  of  facilitating 
any  attempt  at  capture.  They  afford,  indeed,  another 
and  a  signal  instance  of  the  total  incapacity  of  the 
conspirators  for  conducting  the  business  they  had  in 
hand. 

Attended,  if  contemporary  papers  are  to  be  credited, 
by  no  less  than  four  companions,  O'Connor  had  set 
out  from  London  ;  and  having  failed  to  effect  an 
embarkation  from  France  at  the  spot  originally  selected, 
the  party  proceeded  to  make  their  way  on  foot  to 
Margate,  accompanied  by  a  cart  containing  a  large 
amount  of  luggage.  It  is  scarcely  surprising  that, 
arrived  at  that  place,  they  were  met  by  officials  who 
had  followed  them  from  Bow,  had  overtaken  them 
without  undue  difficulty,  and  proceeded  to  take  them 
into  custody. 

O'Connor's  trial  took  place,  some  weeks  later,  at 
Maidstone  ;    a  military  uniform,    the    key    to   a   cor- 


254  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfltsGeralfc 

respondence  in  cypher  with  Lord  Edward,  and, 
according  to  some  accounts,  incriminating  documents 
having  been  found  in  his  possession.  The  office  of 
the  Press  at  Dublin  was  also  searched,  and  all  papers 
seized  ;  Lord  Edward,  who  had  been  in  the  office 
at  the  time  of  the  raid,  "  interesting  himself  much," 
according  to  a  newspaper  of  the  time,  "  to  comfort 
the  woman  of  the  house,"  and  offering  herself  and 
her  family  an  asylum  in  his  own  house,  as  compensa- 
tion for  the  trouble  which  had  been  brought  upon  her. 

In  many  quarters  fears  were  entertained  that  evidence 
sufficient  would  be  forthcoming  to  hang  O'Connor. 
Writing  of  the  chances  of  the  trial,  Fox  observed  that 
ministers  were  "  as  unrelenting  hunters  of  lives  as 
ever  lived,"  and  evidently  felt  alarm  as  to  the  result. 
Lord  Edward,  on  the  other  hand,  shared  no  such 
apprehensions.  He  was  of  too  sanguine  a  spirit  to 
lend  himself  to  forebodings,  declaring  besides,  not 
without  a  touch  of  levity,  that  his  friend  had  had 
"  nothing  odd  about  him,  except  twelve  hundred 
guineas  " — no  doubt,  taking  into  account  the  financial 
condition  of  the  party,  a  startling  and  suspicious 
circumstance  ! 

Lord  Edward's  hopefulness  was  on  this  occasion 
justified  by  the  event.  O'Connor  was  acquitted,  chiefly 
owing  to  the  evidence  borne  in  his  favour  by  the 
Whig  leaders,  who,  satirised  in  a  contemporary  squib 
under  the  names  of  Foxton,  Sherryman,  and  others,  are 
described  as  "  giving  him,  as  they  thought,  the  highest 
character  in  the  world  (though  many  thought  that  they 


Xife  of  Xorb  Eovvaro  tfit30evalo  255 

were  unsaying  all  they  had  said  before)  by  declaring 
that  his  principles  were  exactly  the  same  as  their  own." 

It  will  remain  a  question  by  what  means  such  men  as 
Lord  Moira  and  Grattan,  both  witnesses  in  O'Connor's 
favour,  and  certainly  not  likely  to  perjure  themselves 
for  the  sake  of  a  United  Irishman,  had  been  brought 
to  believe  in  his  innocence.  If,  however,  their  in- 
fluence availed  to  procure  his  acquittal,  it  was  of  little 
service  to  him.  He  was  at  once  rearrested,  and 
removed  to  Ireland,  where  he  passed  the  next  four 
years  in  confinement. 

On  Lord  Edward's  relations,  watching  the  course 
of  events  with  natural  anxiety,  it  was  inevitable  that 
the  apprehension  of  his  intimate  friend  and  associate 
should  have  produced  a  disquieting  impression  ;  and 
before  they  had  had  time  to  recover  from  the  alarm 
it  had  caused  them,  a  second  event  had  taken  place 
which  threw  the  other  matter  into  the  shade,  and  was 
the  beginning  of  the  end. 

The  year  had  opened  favourably,  as  far  as  the  re- 
volutionary designs  were  concerned.  Ulster,  it  is  true, 
owing  to  more  causes  than  one,  was  not  in  a  condition 
so  conducive  to  cordial  co-operation  as  had  been  the 
case  a  few  months  earlier.  The  seizure,  by  General 
Lake,  of  a  large  quantity  of  arms  ;  the  difference  of 
opinion  existing  between  the  northern  and  the  Leinster 
leaders  as  to  the  policy  of  awaiting  French  aid  ; 
together  with  an  unfortunate  tendency  to  jealousy  on 
the  part  of  the  Presbyterians  of  the  north  with  regard 
to  the   Catholic  element,  by  this  time  so  integral  and 


256  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffft3<3eralo 

important  a  factor  of  the  Union  in  other  parts  of  the 
country,  had  all  combined  to  lessen  the  measure  of 
support  to  be  expected  from  the  northern  province. 
But,  to  set  against  this,  the  spread  of  the  organisa- 
tion elsewhere  had  been  enormous  ;  and  in  the  returns 
made  to  Lord  Edward,  as  military  chief,  in  the  month 
of  February,  the  force  regimented  and  armed  through- 
out Ireland  was  estimated  at  scarcely  less  than  three 
hundred  thousand  men.  Nor  was  the  commander-in- 
chief  likely  to  take  to  heart  the  warning  which  had 
been  bestowed  upon  him  with  regard  to  the  important 
distinction  to  be  drawn  between  numbers  on  paper  and 
numbers  in  the  field.  On  the  surface,  at  all  events, 
all  promised  well  for  the  chances  of  success,  should  a 
rising  be  attempted.  But  there  was  one  factor  which 
had  not  been  taken  into  account.  This  was  Mr. 
Thomas  Reynolds. 

That  this  gentleman  is  not  entitled  to  the  entire 
credit  for  the  sequel  is  probable.  With  the  members 
of  the  "  Battalion  of  Testimony  "  scattered  through- 
out the  country  and  plying  their  trade  in  every 
district — men  of  whom  Lord  Moira  had  publicly 
declared,  from  his  place  in  the  Irish  House  of 
Lords,  that  he  "  shuddered  to  think  such  wretches 
could  find  employment  or  protection  under  any 
Government " — it  is  not  possible  that  the  English 
authorities  should  have  remained  in  total  ignorance 
of  a  conspiracy  which  had  attained  such  perilous 
dimensions,  even  had  not  the  prince  of  informers, 
Leonard    McNally,   been    constantly    furnishing    them 


Xife  of  Xoro  Bewail  ifltiOeralo  257 

with  data  as  to  the  affairs  of  the  Society.  But, 
notwithstanding  the  means  of  information  at  their 
command,  there  had  still  existed,  in  the  first  months 
of  the  year,  an  absence  of  any  such  definite  evidence 
as  could  have  been  counted  upon  to  ensure  convictions 
in  the  event  of  the  leaders  being  brought  to  trial. 
That  McNally  should  appear  as  a  witness  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  contemplated,  the  continuance  of 
his  services  being  probably  too  valuable  to  be  forfeited 
even  for  such  a  purpose,  and  of  the  other  principal 
tools  of  the  Government  two  at  least  were  firm  in 
their  refusal  to  come  publicly  forward.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  authorities  were  in  a  dilemma. 

It  is  true  that  another  and  a  less  creditable  reason 
than  that  supplied  by  the  absence  of  sufficient  evidence 
has  been  alleged  to  have  been  the  true  cause  of  the 
delay  of  the  Government  in  taking  active  measures  to 
put  an  end  to  the  conspiracy.  It  has  been  asserted 
that,  for  reasons  of  their  own,  they  had  no  desire  to 
intervene  in  such  a  manner  as  to  prevent  the  imminent 
insurrection.  In  support  of  this  explanation  of  the 
inertia  at  headquarters  Lord  Clonmell  is  said  to  have 
declared  on  his  death-bed  that  the  United  Irishmen 
had  been  expressly  permitted  to  carry  on  their  work 
unhindered,  with  a  view  to  the  facilitation  of  their 
ultimate  destruction,  adding  that  he  himself  had 
entered  a  vain  protest  against  this  policy. 

"As  to  myself,"  he  is  quoted  as  saying,  "if  I  were 
to  begin  life  again,  I  would  rather  be  a  chimney-sweep 
than  connected  with   the  Irish  Government." 

17 


258  Xife  of  Xoro  Ebwaro  jFit3<3eralo 

With  the  explanation  thus  furnished  of  the  tardiness 
displayed  by  the  authorities  in  taking  action,  certain 
documents,  however,  conflict,  and  a  letter  from  Lord 
Camden  to  the  Duke  of  Portland,  written  in  February, 
1798,  should  be  taken  into  account.  In  this  com- 
munication the  arrest  of  the  rebel  leaders,  in  the 
absence  of  evidence  sufficient  to  justify  a  trial,  is 
proposed  ;  the  suggestion,  characteristic  as  it  was  of 
Irish  administration  of  justice,  being  emphatically  and 
unconditionally  negatived  by  the  Duke. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  of  the  previous 
delay,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  to  Reynolds  belongs 
the  distinction  of  having  made  so  definite  a  betrayal 
of  the  secrets  confided  to  him,  as  holding  a  trusted 
position  in  the  Union,  as  to  place  it  in  the  power 
of  the  Government  to  strike  with  certainty  and  safety 
at  the  heads  of  the  organisation. 

It  was  in  November,  1797,  that  the  meeting  with 
Lord  Edward  had  taken  place,  resulting  in  his  advance- 
ment to  a  post  of  importance  in  the  society  of  which 
he  was  already  a  member.  On  the  25th  of  the 
following  February,  chancing  to  have  as  travelling- 
companion  on  some  journey  a  Mr.  Cope — a  gentleman 
"  in  whose  friendship  and  honour  I  had  the  most 
implicit  confidence  "  (the  words  read  like  satire) — he 
was  induced  to  disclose  to  him  in  part  the  extent  of 
the  conspiracy,  with  an  account  of  the  proceedings  at 
the  meeting  already  mentioned,  held  some  six  days 
previously,  of  which  he  had  been  furnished  with  a 
report  by  Lord  Edward  himself.     Nor  was  this  all  ; 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tfit36eralo  259 

for  he  supplied  further  information  with  regard  to  a 
second  projected  meeting,  to  include  the  whole  pro- 
vincial Directory  of  Leinster,  to  take  place  in  Dublin 
on  March  12  th,  at  the  house  of  Oliver  Bond. 

From  this  time  the  Government  saw  its  way  clearly. 
All  was  arranged  with  the  authorities,  and  on  the 
occasion  of  the  proposed  meeting  the  blow  was  to  be 
struck. 

The  day  before  the  eventful  March  12  th  was  a 
Sunday,  and  on  that  morning  Mr.  Reynolds,  whose 
proceedings  at  this  juncture  can  be  traced  in  curious 
detail,  hospitably  entertained  at  breakfast  a  member  of 
the  Society,  "  no  particular  conversation  "  taking  place 
during  the  meal,  owing  to  the  presence  of  his  wife. 
During  a  walk,  however,  taken  by  Reynolds  and  his 
guest  before  they  separated,  the  latter  enjoined  upon 
the  informer  a  punctual  attendance  at  the  meeting 
on  the  following  day — an  injunction  to  which  Mr. 
Reynolds  doubtless  promised  obedience  ;  although  he 
relates  that  later  in  the  day,  u  not  wishing  to  be  at  the 
meeting,  as  I  knew  it  was  to  be  arrested,  I  wrote  a 
note  to  Bond,  stating  that  Mrs.  Reynolds  was  taken 
very  ill,"  and  consequently  excusing  himself  from 
attendance. 

His  Sunday's  work  was  still  incomplete.  Having 
no  doubt  attended  divine  service  in  the  interval,  the 
ex-member  of  the  Catholic  Committee  paid  a  visit  to 
Lord  Edward,  then,  with  his  wife,  staying  at  Leinster 
House  ;  with  the  object — in  which  he  was  successful 
— of  inducing  his  young  chief,  for  whom  he  appears 


26o         xtfe  of  Xoro  JSowarb  tfit3(Bcralo 

to  have  entertained  a  genuine  though  incongruous 
regard,  to  absent  himself  from  the  meeting  on  the 
morrow.  A  printed  paper  produced  by  Reynolds 
and  containing  directions  as  to  the  course  to  be 
pursued  by  the  Lawyers'  Corps  in  case  of  riot  or 
alarm  seemed  to  Lord  Edward  to  point  to  the  posses- 
sion of  information  of  some  kind  on  the  part  of  the 
Government,  and  may  have  lent  weight  to  his  guest's 
representations.  He  wished,  he  observed,  that  he 
could  get  over  to  France,  with  which  country  com- 
munication was  at  that  moment  interrupted  ;  since, 
once  on  the  spot,  he  would  be  able,  by  means  of  his 
intimacy  with  Talleyrand,  to  hasten  the  French  invasion. 
The  most  feasible  plan,  he  added,  would  be  to  fill  a 
few  fast-sailing  frigates  with  officers  and  Irishmen 
and  such  persons  as  were  capable  of  drilling  the 
forces,  besides  arms  and  ammunition,  and  to  put  off 
the  general  expedition  for  the  present. 

Such  was  the  substance  of  the  conversation,  subse- 
quently reported  by  Reynolds  to  Government,  after 
which  the  informer  took  his  leave.  Lord  Edward, 
he  added,  wished  him  to  stay  to  dinner,  but  he 
declined.  He  may  well  have  considered  his  day's 
duty  at  an  end,  and,  having  gained  the  approval 
of  his  conscience,  have  retired  to  his  well-earned 
rest. 

In  one  sense  his  work  had  been  thoroughly  per- 
formed. The  measures  taken  by  the  Government 
next  morning,  in  consequence  of  his  disclosures,  were 
attended  with  all  but  complete  success.     No  less  than 


Xffe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt3(3eralo  261 

fifteen  members  of  the  Committee  were  arrested  at 
the  place  of  meeting  itself,  while  four  others,  absent 
from  Bond's  house  when  the  raid  was  made,  were  taken 
into  custody  almost  simultaneously.  All  papers  were 
likewise  seized. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

* 

1798 

Excitement  in  Dublin — Pamela — Lord  Edward's  Family — 
Lord  Castlereagh's  Sympathy — Lord  Edward's  Evasion — 
Various  Reports — Reynolds's  Curious  Conduct — Meeting 
of  Lord  Edward  and  Pamela — Martial  Law — Lord 
Edward's  Position — Spirit  in  which  he  met  it. 

THAT  March  Monday  must  have  been  a  day 
of  excitement  in  Dublin.  The  Government 
and  the  Castle  had  their  own  cause  of  exultation,  and 
the  populace  its  own  opinions  upon  that  cause.  When 
Lord  Clare,  hastily  sent  for  on  the  arrest  of  the 
conspirators  to  attend  the  meeting  of  the  Council, 
was  hurrying  to  obey  the  summons,  the  mob  greeted 
him  with  abuse,  returned  by  him  with  interest, 
"  cursing  and  swearing  like  a  madman." 

Then,  falling  in  with  Lord  Westmeath,  the  two 
entered  a  shop,  procured  pistols,  and,  thus  armed, 
the  Chancellor  proceeded  on  foot  to  the  Council. 

Many  there  will  have  been,  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  Dublin,  who,  as  the  intelligence  spread 
of  the   wholesale   arrests    which    had    taken    place   at 

262 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3<3eralo  263 

Bond's  house,   will   have   asked   themselves   and  one 
another  the  question,  "  Who  next  ?  " 

And  where  was  Lord  Edward  meanwhile,  the 
leader  whose  escape,  should  it  be  effected,  would  leave 
the  triumph  of  the  Government  still  incomplete  ;  and 
in  whom  the  hopes  of  the  people,  those  others 
they  had  trusted  removed,  would  centre  themselves 
more  and  more  exclusively  ? 

This  was  the  question  asked  by  all,  with  varying 
degrees  of  anxiety,  ranging  from  that  felt  by  Pamela 
as  she  sat,  sick  and  alone,  in  the  great  house  in 
Kildare  Street  which  had  seemed  to  the  country 
housemaid  like  a  prison,  to  the  malevolent  interest 
of  the  Government  officials,  or  the  idle  curiosity  of 
the  lounger  in  the  street. 

It  was  clear  that  he  had  not  attended  the  doomed 
meeting.  It  was  also  certain — or  seemed  to  be  so — 
that  he  was  not  at  Leinster  House  ;  though,  in  point 
of  fact,  he  had  been  only  prevented  from  entering  it 
at  the  very  moment  when  search  was  being  made  for 
him  there  by  the  warning  of  the  faithful  Tony. 
According  to  a  report  in  circulation,  he  was  said  to 
have  been  present  at  the  arrest  of  McNevin,  one  of 
the  absent  members  of  the  Committee  who  had  been 
separately  apprehended,  and  it  was  added  that  he  had 
only  escaped  out  of  the  clutches  of  the  Sheriff's  officers 
by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  his  name  was  included  in  no 
warrant  at  hand.  But  whether  or  not  this  rumour  was 
to  be  credited,  he  had  disappeared,  and  had,  for  the 
moment,  given  his  enemies  the  slip. 


264  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3ftt3<3eralo 

At  Leinster  House  a  mishap  had  occurred  which 
might  have  seriously  affected  the  issue  had  the  case 
against  Lord  Edward  ever  come  to  be  tried  in  court. 
Although  timely  warning  had  been  sent  to  Pamela, 
and  she  had  been  specially  cautioned  to  effect  the 
destruction  of  all  incriminating  documents,  her  presence 
of  mind  in  face  of  the  crisis  appears  to  have  deserted 
her,  unless  indeed  the  scarcely  credible  hypothesis  is 
accepted  which  would  make  her  ignorant  of  the 
existence  of  any  necessity  for  such  precautions.  At 
all  events,  she  appears  to  have  taken  no  steps  to  obey 
the  directions  given  to  her  ;  with  the  result  that,  on 
the  arrival  of  a  search  party  commissioned  to  demand 
the  surrender  of  all  papers  belonging  to  herself  or 
to  Lord  Edward,  she  had  no  alternative  but  to  deliver 
them  up.  She  accordingly  did  so,  though  not  without 
signs  of  such  evident  distress  that  Major  O'Kelly, 
the  officer  in  command  of  the  detachment,  is  said  to 
have  performed  his  duty  in  tears. 

Though  such  a  display  of  her  sentiments  might  not 
be  altogether  judicious  upon  Pamela's  part,  it  was 
natural  enough  that,  if  she  had  had  time  to  examine 
into  the  nature  of  the  documents  she  had  so  un- 
accountably allowed  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
authorities,  she  should  have  experienced  some  un- 
easiness. Amongst  them  was  one — found  in  Lord 
Edward's  desk — dealing  with  the  fashion  after  which, 
in  case  of  a  conflict  taking  place  in  Dublin  itself, 
the  fight  should  be  conducted  ;  as  well  as  a  map 
of  the    town    annotated    for    military    purposes    by    a 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  Jfit3<3eralb  265 

gunmaker.  The  story  goes  that,  information  having 
reached  this  faithful  follower  of  the  fact  that  his 
handiwork  had  fallen  into  the  possession  of  the 
Government,  he  presented  himself  at  once  to  the 
authorities,  claimed  the  map  boldly  as  his  own,  making 
answer,  when  asked  for  what  purpose  he  had  drawn 
it  out,  that  it  had  been  "  for  his  amusement,"  and 
so  did  his  best  to  shield  his  chief. 

The  papers  secured,  the  tearful  O'Kelly,  with  his 
men,  had  retired,  only  to  return  shortly  afterwards 
to  Kildare  Street  in  order  to  institute  a  fresh  search, 
this  time  for  Lord  Edward  himself,  now  ascertained 
beyond  doubt  to  be  not  of  the  number  of  the 
arrested  leaders.  The  quest,  thanks  to  Tony's  watch- 
fulness, proved  vain — a  fact  of  which  Pamela  was 
thoughtfully  apprised  by  O'Kelly,  to  whom  she  after- 
wards addressed  a  letter  in  grateful  acknowledgment 
of  the  consideration  with  which  his  duty  had  been 
performed. 

Others,  besides  Lord  Edward's  wife,  were  in  sore 
distress  and  anxiety  on  his  account.  The  Duchess 
was,  perhaps  fortunately,  in  England  at  the  time  ; 
neither  was  Mr.  Ogilvie,  though  visiting  Dublin  at  a 
later  date,  as  yet  upon  the  spot.  His  wife's  two 
sisters,  however,  Lady  Sarah  Napier  and  Lady  Louisa 
Conolly,  were  both  at  hand  ;  and  their  rebel  nephew 
was  scarcely  less  dear  to  the  one  than  to  the  other, 
although  the  affection  of  the  childless  Lady  Louisa 
was  naturally  of  a  more  absorbing  type  than  that 
of    the    sister    surrounded    by    a    band    of  sons   and 


266  %ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffit3<3eralo 

daughters  of  her  own.  It  is,  indeed,  noticeable  that 
in  neither  of  these  two  aunts,  or  indeed  in  any  others 
of  the  family,  is  a  trace  discernible  of  any  anger  or 
irritation  with  regard  to  the  line  of  conduct  which 
had  been  the  cause  of  so  much  anxiety,  or  of  any 
sentiment  other  than  an  absolute  confidence  in  the 
rectitude  of  the  man  they  loved  so  well,  combined 
with  the  tenderest  solicitude  concerning  his  safety. 

Unusual  facilities  exist  for  ascertaining  not  only 
the  state  of  their  feelings  at  this  time,  but  also  the 
daily  course  of  events,  so  far  as  they  were  known 
to  them.  Lady  Sarah,  whose  husband  was  in  a 
condition  of  health  which  made  it  desirable  that  he 
should  remain  ignorant  at  the  moment  of  disquiet- 
ing occurrences,  kept  for  his  benefit  a  minute  record 
of  the  events  which  followed  upon  the  ministerial 
coup.  In  this  diary  is  contained,  in  particular,  a 
graphic  account  of  a  visit  paid  by  Lady  Louisa,  on 
the  Wednesday  after   the    arrests,  to    the  house  of  a 

ministerial    friend,    Mr.    P [Pakenham],    and    of 

a  conversation  there  carried  on  with  Lord  Castlereagh. 

Lady  Louisa,  who  appears  to  have  been  in  a 
condition  bordering  upon  distraction,  slightly  ex- 
asperating to  her  stronger-minded  sister,  had  appointed 
another  nephew,  Lord  Charles  FitzGerald,  to  meet 
her  at  the  Pakenhams'  house.  In  his  stead,  however, 
Lord  Castlereagh  appeared,  with  the  explanation  that, 
in  spite  of  differences  of  opinion  (Lord  Charles,  two 
years  later,  was  counted  amongst  the  supporters  of 
the  Union),  nature  was  strong,  and  that  Lord  Edward's 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jflt3(Beralo  267 

brother  had  found  himself  so  much  overcome  by  the 
events  of  Monday  that  he  had  set  off  early  the 
following  morning  for  the  country,  to  get  out  of 
the  way. 

Having  offered  this  somewhat  lame  interpretation 
of  the  conduct  of  his  friend,  Lord  Charles's  apologist 
addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  consoling  that  other 
relation  of  the  fugitive,  whose  feelings  had  not  had 
the  effect  of  hurrying  her  from  the  scene  of  action. 
He  informed  her  soothingly  that  she  might  rely  upon 
the  earnest  wishes  of  Government  to  do  all  they  could 
for  Lord  Edward,  "  who  was  so  much  loved,"  adding, 
with  a  ring  of  greater  sincerity,  that,  "  as  he  can't  be 
found,  no  harm  can  happen  to  him  " — a  more  con- 
vincing argument  for  hope  than  the  picture  of  a 
paternal  Government  yearning  to  show  mercy. 

Lord  Castlereagh  also  added  that  he  pitied  Lady 
Edward  "most  exceedingly" — which  everybody  alike 
seems  to  have  done. 

The  host's  part  in  the  conversation  is  also  recorded. 
("  Fine  flummery  !  "  comments  Lady  Sarah  contemp- 
tuously.) "  He  only  hoped  in  God  he  should  not 
meet  Lord  Edward,  as  it  would  be  a  sad  struggle  be- 
tween his  duty  and  friendship  " — friendship,  one  may 
believe,  to  the  Conollys,  the  wealthy  and  influential 
owners  of  Castletown,  rather  than  to  the  culprit 
himself. 

"  Louisa  took  all  this  as  it  was  intended  she 
should,"  adds  her  sister,  still  scornful  ;  "  but  when 
she  was  out  of  the  room,  Emily  " — Lady  Sarah's  own 


268  xite  of  OLoro  Eowaro  tftt3<3eralo 

daughter,  adopted  by  the  Conollys — "  heard  Sir  G.  S. 
express  his  hopes  that  Lord  Edward  would  be  caught ; 
and  she  did  not  hear  or  see  anything  like  a  con- 
tradiction to  this  wish  from  any  of  the  company." 

It  was  indeed  clear  that,  whatever  might  have 
been  the  attitude  of  the  Government  some  weeks 
earlier,  they  were  very  much  in  earnest  in  their  desire 
to  possess  themselves  of  Lord  Edward's  person ; 
and  later  on  Lord  Clare,  who  had  formerly  given 
the  assurance  to  Mr.  Ogilvie  that  no  hindrance  should 
be  placed  in  the  way  of  the  young  man's  escape, 
told  Lord  Auckland,  with  satisfaction,  that  it  was 
expected  that  such  evidence  would  be  forthcoming 
as  would  enable  them  to  "  bring  many  of  the  leading 
traitors  to  justice,  and  at  their  head  Lord  Edward 
FitzGerald." 

For  the  present,  however,  he  was  fortunately  out 
of  their  power,  and  the  question  occupying  all  who 
were  attached  to  him  was  how  he  should  be  kept 
out  of  it. 

Lady  Louisa,  fresh  from  the  consolations  of  Lord 
Castlereagh,  went  to  visit  a  poor  little  Pamela,"  sick 
at  Leinster  House,  to  adjure  her  to  be  silent  as 
to  any  information  she  might  possess  as  to  the 
fugitive's  whereabouts — surely  an  unnecessary  injunc- 
tion— and  to  advise  her  to  remain  where  she  was, 
receiving  all  callers,  in  order  to  demonstrate  that  she 
was  innocent  of  plotting  mischief. 

Pamela,  whose  "  fair,  meek,  and  pitiable  "  account 
of  what  had  taken  place   made  an  excellent  impression 


Xife  of  Xoro  JEbwarfc  tftt3(BenUo  269 

upon  Lord  Edward's  aunt,  agreed  to  all  the  sugges- 
tions offered ;  and  Lady  Louisa  went  back  to  the 
Pakenhams,  to  make  a  report  of  her  goodness  and 
gentleness,  and  no  doubt  to  assure  them  of  the 
certainty,  of  which  Pamela  had  managed  to  convince 
her  visitor,  entertained  by  his  wife  of  Lord  Edward's 
innocence  and  safety.  One  cannot  escape  the  con- 
clusion that  Pamela  was  either  a  very  ingenious  or 
a  strangely  unsuspicious  woman.  Is  it  conceivable 
that,  living  day  by  day  with  a  man  steeped  in  so-called 
treason,  the  head  of  a  conspiracy  about  to  break  into 
open  insurrection,  compromised  as  deeply  as  rebel 
could  be,  his  wife  could  have  remained  ignorant  of 
the  fact  ?  Yet  this  incredible  hypothesis  is  the  only 
alternative  to  the  theory  that  she  was  deliberately 
and  successfully  deluding  his  aunt  into  a  belief  in 
her  conviction  of  his  innocence. 

Regarding  the  place  of  concealment  of  the  object 
of  the  general  anxiety  all  sorts  of  rumours  continued 
to  circulate  as  the  days  went  by. 

It  was  asserted  that  he  had  been  seen  in  a  post- 
chaise  at  Newry,  in  the  company  of  his  brother 
Charles — the  same  whose  feelings  had  compelled  him 
to  absent  himself  from  Dublin,  and  who,  one  may 
believe,  would  in  no  wise  have  welcomed  the  society 
of  so  compromising  a  fellow-traveller.  According  to 
another  rumour,  he  had  succeeded  in  making  good 
his  escape  to  France.  That  this  last  report  continued 
to  prevail  is  to  be  inferred  from  a  letter  from  Lord 
Bulkeley     to     Mr.     Dundas,     containing    an     account 


270  %itc  of  Xovo  Bowaro  tfit3<3et*alo 

of  a  meeting  at  Chester,  towards  the  end  of  April, 
between  the  informant  he  quotes  and  an  Irishman 
by  whom  he  had  been  mistaken  for  the  missing 
man. 

"  My  Lord  Edward  !  "  the  stranger  had  exclaimed, 
accosting  Lord  Bulkeley's  correspondent  in  the  street, 
"  I  am  glad  to  see  you.  We  thought  you  had  got 
safe  to  France." 

Acting  upon  the  principle  that  all  is  fair  in  war — 
a  principle  carried  in  those  days  to  singular  lengths 
— the  person  who  had  given  rise  to  the  misappre- 
hension set  himself,  with  much  presence  of  mind, 
to  play  the  part  for  which  he  had  been  cast  by 
his  unknown  interlocutor.  Not  only  on  that  day, 
but  at  a  subsequent  interview  on  the  next,  he  per- 
sonated Lord  Edward,  in  the  hope  of  thus  obtaining 
information  useful  to  the  Government  ;  while,  re- 
lating further  how  his  dupe  had  offered  to  be 
the  bearer  of  a  letter  to  Ireland,  he  gave  ingenuous 
expression  to  his  regret  that  he  had  not  found 
himself  in  a  position  to  forge  the  handwriting  of 
the  national  leader. 

While  all  these  various  rumours  as  to  Lord 
Edward's  whereabouts  continued  to  be  afloat,  it  is 
probable  that  before  many  hours  had  passed  Pamela 
could  have  solved  the  mystery.  She  was  not  such 
a  good  actress  after  all,  in  spite  of  Madame  de  Genlis's 
instructions,  for  not  more  than  three  days  had  elapsed 
before  Lady  Sarah  recorded  that  her  spirits  had 
recovered  in  so  sudden  a  fashion  that  every  one  was 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jftt3(Seralo  271 

convinced  that  she  knew  where  her  husband  was,  and 
was  secure  of  his  safety. 

Some  one  else  knew  too.  That  person  was  Thomas 
Reynolds. 

According  to  his  own  account  of  the  matter,  the 
informer  was  brought,  on  the  Wednesday  after  the 
seizure  of  his  victims,  to  the  house  where  Lord  Edward 
was  in  hiding,  had  an  interview  with  him  there,  and 
returned  by  appointment  on  the  following  day,  when 
the  fugitive  committed  to  the  traitor's  care  an  address 
to  the  country,  encouraging  the  people  to  disregard 
the  blow  which  had  been  struck,  to  fill  up  without 
delay  the  vacancies  caused  by  it  in  the  Committee,  and 
to  rely  upon  their  leader  being  found  at  his  post  at 
the  time  of  need.  After  which  Lord  Edward,  who 
was  on  the  point  of  shifting  his  place  of  concealment, 
left  the  house  in  disguise. 

The  question  which  naturally  arises  on  reading 
Mr.  Reynolds's  story,  granted  it  was  true,  is  as  to 
the  reason  that  the  victim,  affording,  as  he  had  done, 
every  facility  to  his  enemies,  should  not  have  been, 
there  and  then,  on  the  day  he  had  appointed  the 
informer  to  meet  him,  delivered  into  the  hands  of 
his  pursuers  ?  Was  it,  as  has  been  suggested,  that 
the  authorities  were  still  desirous,  at  the  eleventh  hour, 
of  giving  him  an  opportunity  of  escape  ?  or — a  more 
likely  explanation,  taking  into  account  Reynolds's 
former  anxiety  to  keep  Lord  Edward  away  from  the 
meeting  at  Bond's  house — was  it  that  the  traitor  him- 
self still  held  his  hand,  and  hesitated  to  strike  at  the 


272  %ifc  ot  %ovb  JEfcwarfc  jfit3(Beralfc> 

person  of  his  chief  ?  To  whatever  cause  his  conduct 
was  due,  the  result  was  the  same,  and  Lord  Edward 
continued  at  liberty. 

Notwithstanding  the  advice  given  by  Lady  Louisa 
that  Pamela  should  remain  at  Leinster  House — Conolly, 
always  a  cautious  man,  having  forbidden  his  wife  to 
receive  her  at  her  own — she  intimated  to  Lady  Sarah, 
on  the  day  of  Reynolds's  second  interview  with  Lord 
Edward,  that  her  present  place  of  residence  had  grown 
detestable  to  her,  and  announced  her  intention  of 
hiring  a  quiet  house  of  her  own. 

"  She  bid  me,"  adds  Lady  Sarah,  "  tell  my  sister 
Leinster  to  be  quite,  quite  easy.  To  write  would 
be  folly  in  her,  and  indeed  in  us,  for  all  letters  are 
opened  now  ;  so  I  only  wrote  to  Mrs.  Johnston, 
and  made  a  child  direct  it,  desiring  her  to  send  for 
Mr.  Ogilvie,  and  show  it  him.  We  know  nothing 
yet  of  how  my  poor  sister  will  take  it — I  fear  very 
badly." 

Pamela's  determination  to  change  her  quarters  was 
explicable  enough.  It  may  well  have  occurred  both 
to  her  and  to  Lord  Edward  that  communication  would 
be  easier  and  safer  in  an  unpretentious  lodging  than 
should  she  continue  to  tenant  the  Duke's  great  house. 
At  any  rate,  she  carried  out  her  intention  without 
delay.  On  the  very  day  when  she  had  declared 
it — the  one  on  which  Lord  Edward's  hiding-place 
was  to  be  changed  for  another — he  visited  her  at  her 
fresh  abode,  in  Denzille  Street  ;  and  the  confidential 
maid  who,  with  Tony,    had  accompanied  her   thither, 


G.  Romney,  pinx.  Photo,  by  Lawrence. 

Pamela,  Lady  Edward  FitzGerald,  and  Child. 


page  272. 


%itc  ot  Xorfc  Efcwarfc  jftt36eralfc  273 

was  startled,  on  entering  the  room  that  night,  to  find 
her  master,  whom  she  had  imagined  to  be  in  France, 
sitting  with  his  wife  in  the  firelight,  both,  as  she 
believed,  in  tears  ;  while  little  Pamela,  not  yet  two 
years  old,  had  been  brought  down  from  her  bed  in 
order  that  her  father  might  take  leave  of  her. 

It  was  the  last  meeting  of  husband  and  wife  for 
over  a  month — their  last  meeting  but  one,  so  far  as 
any  record  remains,  on  this  side  of  the  grave. 

Other  matters  besides  purely  personal  ones  must 
have  been  discussed  that  night ;  for  on  the  following 
day — the  statement  is  made  on  the  authority  of  Mr. 
Reynolds's  son — the  informer  had  an  interview  with 
Pamela,  when  she  handed  over  to  him  on  Lord 
Edward's  behalf  certain  sums  due  to  the  funds  of 
the  Society,  Reynolds  being  still  an  accredited  member 
of  it.  She  also  gave  him  a  ring  to  serve  as  a  guarantee 
of  the  authenticity  of  any  communication  he  might 
have  occasion  to  send  to  her  ;  and  finally  complained 
to  him  of  her  own  lack  of  available  money,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  the  compassionate  Reynolds  sent  her 
fifty  pounds,  having  placed  the  like  sum  at  Lord 
Edward's  disposal  on  the  previous  day. 

The  statement  may  be  taken  for  what  it  is  worth. 
It  is  a  singular  coincidence,  and  one  which  does 
not  tend  to  corroborate  it,  that  in  Lady  Sarah 
Napier's  diary  there  is  an  entry  the  very  day  before 
that  of  Pamela's  interview  with  the  informer,  to  the 
effect  that  she  had  sent  her  nephew's  wife  the  sum 
of  twenty   pounds,  in   case  she   might  find  herself  in 

18 


274  Xife  of  Xoro  Bbwaro  ffit36eralo 

want  of  ready  money,  which  sum  Pamela  had  re- 
turned, saying  she  had  plenty  by  her.  It  is  of 
course  possible  that  she  had  not  been  aware  at  the 
time  that  some  of  the  money  at  hand  belonged 
to  the  Society,  and  was  not  available  for  personal 
use  ;  but  in  any  case  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that, 
in  case  of  need,  she  would  not  have  preferred  to  be 
indebted  to  her  husband's  aunt  rather  than  to  the 
ex-silk-mercer. 

At  Denzille  Street,  as  before  at  Leinster  House, 
the  weeks  that  followed  must  have  been  weeks  of 
ceaseless  anxiety.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the 
desire  of  Government  to  lay  hands  upon  the  only 
man  whose  acquaintance  with  military  affairs  could 
qualify  him  to  conduct  an  insurrection  with  any 
chance  of  success  grew  stronger  and  stronger  as  they 
acquired  fresh  proofs  of  the  extent  of  the  conspiracy, 
nor  can  they  be  blamed  for  it.  The  energy  displayed 
in  filling  up  the  gaps  made  by  the  recent  action  of 
the  Government  in  the  organisation  of  the  Society,  and 
the  prompt  reconstruction  of  the  Directory,  were 
proofs  that  the  losses  it  had  suffered  had  not  been 
fatal  to  its  vital  forces.  It  is  said  that  on  the  very 
evening  of  the  arrests  three  appointments  were  made 
to  fill  the  vacancies  left  in  the  Leinster  Executive  ; 
and  a  handbill  put  into  circulation  only  five  days  later 
gives  an  idea  of  the  unwearying  efforts  at  work 
to  keep  up  the  courage  and  spirits  of  the  national 
party.  Preserved  by  Moore,  it  is  worth  summarising 
here. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jftt3(3eralb  275 

"  For  us,"  so  it  runs,  "  the  keen  but  momentary- 
anxiety  occasioned  by  the  situation  of  our  invaluable 
friends  subsided  into  a  calm  tranquillity,  a  consoling 
conviction  of  mind  that  they  are  as  safe  as  innocence 
can  make  men  now  ;  and  to  these  sentiments  were 
quickly  added  a  redoubled  energy,  a  tenfold  activity 
of  exertion  which  has  already  produced  the  happiest 
effects.  The  organisation  of  the  capital  is  perfect ;  .  .  . 
the  sentinels  whom  you  have  appointed  to  watch 
over  your  interests  stand  firm  at  their  posts,  vigilant 
of  events,  and  prompt  to  give  you  notice  and  advice, 
which,  on  every  occasion  at  all  requiring  it,  you 
may  rely  on  receiving.  .  .  .  Your  enemies  talk  of 
treachery,  in  the  vain  and  fallacious  hope  of  creating 
it  ;  but  you,  who  scorn  equally  to  be  their  dupes 
or  their  slaves,  will  meet  their  forgeries  with  dignified 
contempt,  incapable  of  being  either  goaded  into  un- 
timely violence  or  sunk  into  pusillanimous  despondency. 
Be  firm,  Irishmen,  but  be  cool  and  cautious  ;  be 
patient  yet  awhile  ;  trust  to  no  unauthorised  com- 
munications ;  and  above  all  we  warn  you,  again  and 
again  we  warn  you,  against  doing  the  work  of  your 
tyrants  by  premature,  by  partial  or  divided  exertion. 
If  Ireland  shall  be  forced  to  throw  away  the  scabbard, 
let  it  be  at  her  own  time,  not  at  theirs." 

Evidence  of  the  unbroken  and  undaunted  spirit 
displayed  cannot  have  been  wanting  to  the  Govern- 
ment ;  and  as  more  and  more  information  reached 
the  authorities,  the  measures  they  adopted  increased 
proportionately    in     stringency     and     rigour.      They 


276  Xife  of  Xoro  Bcwaro  3Fit3(3eralo 

culminated  in  the  proclamation,  on  March  30th,  of 
martial  law  and  free  quarters — a  proceeding  followed 
by  what  has  been  characterised  by  an  historian  whose 
rigid  impartiality  and  unexaggerated  veracity  none 
will  question  as  "  a  scene  of  horrors  hardly  surpassed 
in  the  modern  history  of  Europe." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  here  into  the  sickening 
details  of  the  system  of  barbarous  and  savage  brutality 
of  which  the  unhappy  peasants  were  made  the  victims 
through  the  instrumentality  of  an  army  whose  con- 
dition was  described  by  its  own  commander,  Sir  Ralph 
Abercrombie,  as  "a  state  of  licentiousness  that 
rendered  it  formidable  to  every  one  but  the  enemy." 
But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  scenes 
enacted  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
country  have  been  allowed  on  all  hands  to  have  been 
the  cause  of  hastening  on  the  insurrection  and  of 
making  further  postponement  impossible. 

In  Dublin  itself  and  its  vicinity  the  measures  of 
the  Government  had  been  marked  by  special  prompti- 
tude and  energy.  Within  a  fortnight  of  the  arrests 
at  Bond's,  so  strictly  enforced  were  the  orders  to 
institute  everywhere  a  search  for  arms  that  domi- 
ciliary visits  were  paid  for  that  purpose  to  the  houses 
of  men  as  well  known  as  Mr.  Conolly  and  Colonel 
Napier. 

Of  the  warning  conveyed  to  Lady  Louisa  Conolly, 
in  the  absence  of  her  husband,  of  the  impending 
search,  and  of  her  reception  of  the  intelligence,  a 
graphic  account  is  given  by  Lady  Sarah.     The  timorous 


Xife  of  Xoro  Beware  jfit36eralo  277 

and  nervous  Lady  Louisa  had,  to  the  indignation 
of  her  sister,  treated  the  officer  by  whom  it  had 
been  brought  with  all  courtesy  and  meekness,  going 
so  far  as  to  desire  that  gentleman — plainly  dis- 
posed to  treat  the  search  in  the  present  case  as  a 
matter  of  form — not  to  allow  his  civility  to  interfere 
with  the  performance  of  his  duty. 

"  Thus,"  pursues  the  high-spirited  Lady  Sarah — 
"  thus  did  my  dear  sister  so  alter  her  nature  that  she 
submitted  to  be  disarmed  and  leave  her  house  a  prey 
to  vagabonds.  .  .  .  What  perversion  in  the  noblest 
nature  may  be  compassed  by  cunning,  by  nerves,  and 
by  habits  of  having  terror  rung  in  her  ears  for  years  ! 
I  had  neither  time  nor  thoughts  to  answer,  argue,  or 
try  to  convince  her  " — Lady  Louisa  had  come  over 
to  her  sister's  house  to  communicate  to  Lady  Sarah 
the  warning  she  had  herself  received — "  I  thanked  her 
for  the  notice  and  rejoiced  to  be  prepared ;  and  on 
reflection  I  now  determine  to  refuse  to  allow  the  search 
or  to  give  up  the  arms." 

To  which  determination,  it  may  be  added,  Lady 
Sarah  steadily  adhered,  successfully  vindicating  her 
right   to   retain  the  means  of  defence. 

On  the  same  morning  that  Lady  Louisa's  visit 
had  been  paid,  Lady  Sarah  had  received  another,  this 
time  from  a  Mr.  Henry,  with  whom  the  political 
situation,  and  in  especial  Lord  Edward's  share  in  it, 
was  discussed.  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  guest  that 
the  Government  still  continued  to  desire  the  escape 
of  the    young    leader.       He,  however,    expressed    his 


278  Xtfe  of  1/orb  lEowaro  3fft3<3eralo 

fears  that  the  latter  would  be  tempted  c<  to  draw  the 
sword  and  throw  away  the  scabbard,  for  that  they 
(I  don't  know  who  Henry  includes  in  they)  all  say 
that  if  Edward  is  taken  or  touched  they  wont  bear  it." 

Lady  Sarah  also  learnt  from  the  same  informant 
that  "  Lord  Ormond  and  Sparrow  made  themselves 
constables,  searching  for  Edward  with  two  dragoons, 
the  latter  vowing  he  would  bring  him  dead  or 
alive." 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  endeavours  of  police, 
professional  and  amateur,  Lord  Edward  continued  to 
remain  at  large.  Nor,  whatever  might  be  the  case 
with  Pamela,  does  it  seem  that  any  of  his  relations 
were  aware  of  his  whereabouts. 

Yet  he  was,  in  fact,  during  the  ten  weeks  for  which 
he  contrived  to  baffle  his  pursuers,  never  absent  from 
Dublin  or  its  immediate  vicinity. 

His  presence  in  the  neighbourhood  was  no  fool- 
hardy courting  of  danger  ;  it  was  clearly  necessary. 
Taking  into  account  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case, 
the  activity  and  vigour  of  the  Government,  and  the 
possibility  that,  in  the  excited  condition  of  the  people, 
immediate  action  might  be  rendered  at  any  moment 
expedient  or  necessary,  it  was  essential  that  the  man 
on  whom  the  command  of  the  enterprise  would 
devolve  should  remain  at  hand,  ready  at  any  time, 
in  the  event  of  an  emergency,  to  take  the  direction 
of  affairs. 

In  no  case  was  it  likely  that,  at  this  eleventh  hour, 
Lord    Edward  would    have    been    induced    to   consult 


%itc  of  Xoro  Bowaro  jftt3<3eraio  279 

his  own  safety  by  withdrawing  to  a  distance.  Yet  the 
position  might  well  have  seemed  to  most  men  little 
short  of  desperate.  The  blow  struck  by  Government, 
important  as  it  was  to  minimise  it,  had  been  a  crush- 
ing one,  depriving  the  conspiracy  of  close  upon  a  score 
of  its  ablest  heads,  and  diminishing  to  an  incalculable 
degree  its  chances  of  success.  It  must  further — in 
spite  of  the  denial  contained  in  the  handbill  which 
has  been  quoted — have  been  suspected,  if  not  known, 
that  the  information  which  had  enabled  the  Govern- 
ment to  aim  that  blow  with  such  precision  and 
exactitude  had  been  due  to  treachery ;  and  in  the 
absence  of  power  to  bring  home  the  guilt  to  any 
individual,  it  was  not  surprising  if  men,  carrying  their 
lives  in  their  hands,  should  have  been  tempted  to 
look  upon  each  other  with  distrust. 

It  was  also  clear  that  French  assistance,  alone 
promising  a  fair  chance  of  success  to  the  rising,  was 
no  nearer  than  before.  In  a  note  which  reached  Lord 
Edward  some  weeks  later,  couched,  for  the  purpose 
of  evading  suspicion,  in  ambiguous  terms,  the  Irish 
agent  at  Paris  wrote  that  the  desired  advance  of  5,000 
pounds — jealousy  of  too  large  an  invading  force  had 
limited  the  request  to  that  number  of  men — had  been 
refused,  that  no  payment  would  be  made  short  of  the 
entire,  and  even  that  not  for  four  months.  It  might 
as  well  have  been  four  years. 

Nor,  turning  from  public  to  personal  matters,  was 
the  prospect  upon  which  the  eyes  of  the  fugitive 
rested    less    menacing.     A    hunted    man,    with,    later 


28o  xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fft36eralb 

on,  a  price  upon  his  head  ;  separated  from  the  wife 
he  loved  at  the  time  of  her  greatest  need  ;  his  own 
future,  with  hers,  and  that  of  their  little  children  and 
the  baby  still  unborn,  lying  dark  and  uncertain  before 
him  ;  his  closest  friend  awaiting  in  prison  his  trial  on 
a  capital  charge  ;  his  comrades,  true  and  loyal,  most 
of  them  scattered  or  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy  ;  cut  off  from  all  possibility  of  communication 
with  the  mother  he  loved  so  well,  and  the  thought 
of  whose  anxiety  must  have  been  in  itself  a  burden 
heavy  to  bear, — such  was  Lord  Edward's  position 
through  those  weeks  of  loneliness  and  peril.  It 
was  a  position  which  might  well  have  taken  effect 
upon  the  most  courageous  heart,  the  most  gallant 
temper. 

Yet,  with  all  this,  his  spirit,  so  far  as  can  be  known, 
never  flagged.  Throughout  these  weeks  of  daily  peril, 
when  he  could  feel  no  security,  as  each  morning  broke, 
that  evening  would  not  find  him  run  to  earth  by  the 
men  who  were  hunting  him  down,  the  prey  of  a  false 
friend  or  a  paid  informer,  when  the  weight,  more 
oppressive  than  that  of  personal  danger,  of  the  supreme 
responsibility  for  the  direction  of  the  movement  which 
represented  to  him  the  salvation  of  the  country  and 
of  the  miserable  people,  tortured,  murdered,  and 
desperate,  rested  upon  his  shoulders,  his  courage 
never  failed.  He  faced  the  chances  of  death  with  as 
gentle  and  light-hearted  a  gallantry  as  he  had  faced 
those  of  life.  Only  when  he  was  at  last  tracked  down, 
when    the    hope    of  being    of  further    service    to    his 


Xife  ot  Xorfc  Efcwarfc  3fit3<Betalb  281 

cause    was    at    an    end,    is    any    trace    evident    of  a 
readiness  to  relinquish  the  struggle. 

"  I  am  sorry  for  it,"  he  replied  quietly,  upon  being 
told  that  the  wound  he  had  received  in  the  fight 
which  had  just  taken  place  was  not  dangerous.  It  was 
his  solitary  expression  of  regret. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

1798 

Lord  Edward  in  Hiding — Hairbreadth  Escapes — Loyalty  and 
Treachery — In  Thomas  Street — Last  Visit  to  His  Wife — 
Insurrectionary  Plans — Higgins  and  Magan — Attempt  at 
Capture — Acquittal  of  Lord  Kingston — Lord  Edward 
tracked,  wounded,  and  taken  Prisoner. 

THE  history  of  Lord  Edward  during  the  following 
weeks  is  the  history  of  a  hunted  man — a  record 
of  hairbreadth  escapes,  of  fitful  caution  alternating 
with  the  reckless  foolhardiness  which  familiarity  with 
danger  seldom  fails  to  breed.  It  is  a  story  of  sordid 
and  cold-blooded  treachery  and  of  heroic  fidelity. 

There  is  no  contrast  more  striking  than  that  pre- 
sented at  this  moment  by  the  history  of  the  country 
between  instances  of  repeated  and  deliberate  betrayal 
of  trust  by  men  whose  position  and  standing  might 
have  seemed  to  be  a  guarantee  of  integrity,  and  the 
most  unshaken  and  incorruptible  loyalty  on  the  part 
of  others  to  whom  the  offered  bribes  would  have  meant 
the  exchange  of  poverty  and  want  for  undreamt-of 
riches.  The  story  is  well  known  of  the  escape  of 
Hamilton  Rowan,  when  a  couple  of  boatmen,  with  the 

282 


Xife  of  Xoro  lEowaro  3ftt3<Beralo  283 

very  handbills  in  their  possession  which  offered  a 
hundred  pounds  for  his  apprehension,  carried  him  safely 
over  to  France.  On  another  occasion  three  militia 
soldiers,  condemned  to  death  as  United  Irishmen,  chose 
rather  to  give  up  their  lives  than  to  purchase  pardon 
by  the  betrayal  of  their  comrades,  the  father  of  one  of 
the  three,  when  desired  to  use  his  influence  for  the 
purpose  of  saving  his  son,  declaring  that  he  would 
shoot  him  himself  sooner  than  see  him  turn  informer. 
And  again  and  again  Lord  Edward,  placed  by  his 
rashness  in  circumstances  of  the  utmost  jeopardy,  was 
safeguarded  by  the  fidelity  of  those  in  whose  power 
he  lay. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  seemed  to  cost  little  to  men 
like  Reynolds,  or  like  Higgins  the  journalist  and 
Magan  the  barrister — the  two  who  share  between  them 
the  honour  of  his  final  betrayal — to  convert  themselves 
into  Government  tools.  In  the  same  way  Captain 
Armstrong — with,  be  it  remembered,  the  emphatic  ap- 
proval of  his  brother-officers — gained  the  confidence  of 
the  unfortunate  Sheares  brothers,  associated  with  them 
on  friendly  terms,  acquired  possession  of  their  secrets, 
wound  up  by  dining  with  them  and  their  family  on  the 
eve  of  the  catastrophe — a  proceeding  with  regard  to 
which  it  is  fair  to  say  that  he  had  himself  entertained 
scruples,  removed  by  Lord  Castlereagh — and  delivered 
them  over  the  following  day  to  the  vengeance  of  the 
Government.  It  was  no  wonder  that  acts  such  as 
these  gave  birth  in  some  instances  to  altogether  un- 
merited  distrust  ;    and  as    a   proof  of  the  lengths   to 


284  Xife  of  SLoro  Eowaro  jfftsOeralo 

which  suspicion  might  go,  it  is  strange  to  find  that 
Mr.  Ogilvie,  whose  devoted  and  lifelong  affection  for 
his  stepson  might  have  been  expected  to  exempt  him 
from  suspicion,  was  at  one  time  regarded  in  the  light 
of  a  possible  betrayer. 

It  was  not  considered  advisable  that  Lord  Edward 
should  remain  for  any  length  of  time  in  the  same  place 
of  concealment  ;  and  the  retreat  that  had  been  selected 
for  him  upon  leaving  the  house  in  which  he  had 
received  the  visits  of  Reynolds  was  the  home  of  a  lady 
named  Dillon,  who  lived  close  to  the  Grand  Canal  at 
Portobello  Bridge. 

Though  unacquainted,  except  by  reputation,  with 
the  man  to  whom  shelter  was  to  be  afforded,  she  con- 
sented, at  the  request  of  Mr.  Lawless,  a  surgeon  and 
one  of  the  ablest  of  the  United  Irishmen  still  at  large, 
to  receive  the  fugitive.  Under  her  hospitable  roof  he 
remained  for  close  upon  a  month,  ready  at  hand  in  case 
any  emergency  should  call  for  immediate  action  ;  and 
in  the  meantime  eluding,  so  far  as  it  was  possible, 
observation. 

It  must  have  been  an  anxious  time  for  his  hostess, 
who  had  quickly  attached  herself  to  the  young  leader 
confided  to  her  care,  with  his  winning  ways  and  love- 
able  nature,  and  his  rash  disregard  of  the  commonest 
rules  which  prudence  would  have  prescribed.  To  be 
cautious  was  not  possible  to  him,  however  momentous, 
to  himself  and  the  country,  might  be  the  interests  at 
stake  ;  and  a  flagrant  example  of  his  carelessness  was 
afforded  by  the  prompt  discovery,  by  a  servant  in  Mrs. 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfft3(3eralo  285 

Dillon's  household,  of  the  identity  of  her  visitor  "  Mr. 
Jameson  "  with  the  rebel  chief,  owing  to  his  name 
being  written  at  full  in  one  of  his  boots.  In  this  in- 
stance the  secret  had  fortunately  fallen  into  safe  hands, 
the  man  assuring  his  mistress  that  she  had  no  cause 
for  alarm,  as  he  would  die  to  save  her  guest.  He  like- 
wise refused,  with  a  caution  and  foresight  Lord 
Edward  might  have  done  well  to  imitate,  to  receive  the 
acknowledgments  of  the  fugitive  in  person  ;  in  order 
that,  in  case  of  necessity,  he  might  be  able  to  swear 
that  he  had  never  seen  him. 

So  long  as  daylight  lasted  Lord  Edward  was  per- 
force obliged  to  confine  himself  to  the  house  ;  but 
when  the  friendly  darkness — the  late  dusk  of  the 
spring  evenings — came  on,  he  would  issue  forth,  a 
child  who  chanced  to  be  at  hand  his  usual  companion. 
As  the  two  playfellows — the  one,  it  would  seem, 
scarcely  less  light-hearted  than  the  other — returned 
along  the  water's  edge,  Lord  Edward  amusing  him- 
self with  the  alarm  of  his  little  companion  as  he  sprang 
into  the  half-sunk  boats  that  lay  in  the  canal,  the 
sound  of  their  laughter  would  reach  the  ears  of  the 
anxious  woman  waiting  at  home,  and  she  would  go 
out  to  meet  her  guest  and  warn  him  of  the 
necessity  for  caution — a  warning  no  doubt  accepted 
with  penitence  and  gratitude,  and  dismissed  without 
delay  from  the  memory  of  the  delinquent. 

A  great  conspiracy  had  also  been  entered  into 
between  himself  and  his  little  associate,  to  while  away 
the  hours,   having  for  its   object  the   uprooting  of  a 


286  Xite  ot  Xorfc  Efcwarfc  ffit3<Beralfc> 

bank  of  orange  lilies  in  the  absence  of  their  lawful 
owner.     Truly  they  were  children  together. 

Even  to  the  most  light-hearted,  however,  moments 
must  come  when  the  pressure  of  anxiety  will  make 
itself  felt.  At  such  times  the  thoughts  of  the  fugitive 
would  turn  to  his  wife  and  babies  ;  and  he  would  wait 
eagerly  for  news  of  the  household  in  Denzille  Street, 
of  the  poor  sick  wife  and  her  children,  Edward  Fox 
and  baby  Pamela.  Mrs.  Dillon  would  then  go  into 
Dublin  to  obtain  tidings  of  them  ;  and  having  gained 
the  certainty  that  all  was,  for  the  present  at  least,  well, 
her  visitor  would  no  doubt  take  courage  again. 

Life  during  these  weeks  and  those  which  followed 
was  not  wanting,  as  may  be  imagined,  in  distractions 
of  a  more  exciting  nature  than  could  be  afforded  by 
an  onslaught  upon  unoffending  lilies.  To  a  man  of 
Lord  Edward's  boyish  temperament  and  love  of 
adventure  the  risks  he  ran  would  not  have  been 
without  their  charm.  A  story,  for  example,  is  told 
of  how  on  one  occasion  a  yeoman  named  Dempsey — 
the  tale  was  preserved  in  his  family  and  will  remain 
its  title  to  honour — on  guard  at  Leixlip  Bridge,  was 
accosted  at  dawn  one  day  by  a  countryman  in  frieze 
coat  and  corduroy  breeches,  with  the  question  whether 
there  was  any  night  park  at  hand  where  he  might 
house  the  sheep  he  was  driving  before  him. 

"  No,  my  lord,"  was  the  significant  reply  ;  "  there 
is  no  pasturage  in  this  neighbourhood." 

And  the  eyes  of  the  two  men  will  have  met,  in  full 
comprehension  of  all  that  was  left  unsaid.     Then,  no 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3ftt3<5eralo  287 

other  word  spoken,  the  sentinel  resumed  his  beat, 
and  the  drover  passed  on,  possessed  of  a  new  proof 
of  the  loyalty  of  the  people  to  their  chief,  and  with  a 
fresh  hopefulness  at  his  heart. 

On  another  occasion,  later  on,  the  peril  incurred 
was  more  serious.  The  fugitive  was  actually  arrested 
by  a  patrol  when  engaged  in  making  a  survey  of  the 
country  about  Kildare,  in  company  with  Samuel 
Neilson,  one  of  the  most  prominent  United  Irishmen 
remaining  at  liberty,  and  the  same  who,  with  more 
acuteness  than  had  been  displayed  by  wiser  men,  had 
conceived  a  doubt  of  Reynolds's  honesty. 

Neilson — of  whom,  curiously  enough,  Grattan  had 
a  better  opinion  than  of  most  of  his  associates,  and 
who  had  also  been  consulted  by  the  Chief  Secretary, 
Pelham,  with  regard  to  the  possibility  of  conciliating 
the  North — was  a  Belfast  journalist,  violent,  in- 
temperate, and  imprudent.  He  was  held  by  some  to 
be  not  altogether  accountable  for  his  conduct  when 
under  the  stress  of  excitement,  and  his  reckless  indis- 
cretion at  the  time  of  Lord  Edward's  arrest  drew 
upon  him,  probably  quite  unjustly,  the  suspicion  of 
treachery.  By  his  great  stature  and  Herculean  propor- 
tions he  was  rendered  almost  as  conspicuous  and  as 
undesirable  a  companion  for  a  hunted  man  as  poor 
black  Tony,  who  lamented  to  Mrs.  Dillon  the  fact 
that  his  "  unfortunate  face "  was  an  obstacle  to  his 
visiting  his  master  while  he  was  in  hiding.  Of 
his  extraordinary  physical  strength  evidence  was  given 
when  he  was  brought  to  trial  before  Lord  Carleton — 


288  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tflt3<3eralo 

that  judge  the  sharpness  of  whose  severity  was  ex- 
plained by  Curran  when  he  described  him  as  water 
turned  to  ice,  congealed  fears — the  jailer  excusing 
himself  for  the  unusual  weight  of  the  irons  put  upon 
the  prisoner  by  the  assertion  that  though  he  would 
not  have  made  use  of  such  fetters  for  any  other  two 
men,  they  were,  in  this  case,  necessary  for  his  own 
safety. 

It  was  in  the  company  of  this  person  that  Lord 
Edward  was  arrested  by  the  patrol.  Neilson,  however, 
pretended  to  be  drunk,  Lord  Edward  assumed  the 
character  of  a  doctor,  and  both  were  set  at  liberty. 

On  yet  another  occasion,  a  police  officer  having 
been  observed  to  be  taking  note  of  the  house  where 
the  refugee  was  concealed,  and  a  raid  upon  it  being 
consequently  apprehended,  he  was  promptly  put  to 
bed,  in  the  absence  of  her  mistress,  by  Mrs.  Dillon's 
maid,  and  so  disposed  as,  in  case  of  a  search,  to 
represent  an  invalid  lady.  The  alarm,  however,  proved 
to  have  been  a  false  one,  and  nothing  came  of  it, 
except  much  laughter  on  the  part  of  the  chief  actor 
in  the  play. 

The  fact,  however,  which  had  given  rise  to  the 
apprehension  being  taken  into  account,  together  with 
one  or  two  other  suspicious  circumstances,  it  was 
decided  that  the  place  of  concealment  should  once 
more  be  changed.  It  was  accordingly  arranged  that 
Lord  Edward  should  pass  some  days  in  Thomas 
Street,  at  the  house  of  the  feather-merchant  Murphy, 
whose  description  of  his  guest  has  already  been  quoted. 


Xffe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit3(3erait>  289 

In  this  place,  and  in  two  other  houses  close  by — 
those  of  Moore  and  Cormick  * — he  spent  some  weeks, 
becoming,  as  time  went  on  and  he  remained  undis- 
covered, more  and  more  neglectful  of  the  commonest 
precautions.  He  went  so  far  as  to  venture,  upon 
his  arrival  in  Dublin,  to  visit  his  wife,  whose  neigh- 
bourhood must  have  been  constantly  under  police 
observation.  The  shock  caused  to  Pamela  by  the 
discovery  of  the  true  nature  of  the  guest  she  had 
been  summoned  to  receive  in  the  disguise  of  a  woman, 
and  her  terror  at  the  consequences  which  might  attend 
his  imprudence,  came  near  to  costing  her  her  life  ;  and 
it  was  then  that  the  birth  of  her  child — Lord  Edward's 
younger  daughter — took  place. 

The  anticipations  of  the  promoters  of  the  conspiracy 
were  assuming,  as  well  they  might,  a  less  sanguine 
complexion.  A  man  named  Hughes,  examined  in 
August  of  the  same  year  before  the  Committee 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  gave  a  description  of  a  visit 
paid  by  him  in  Neilson's  company  to  Cormick's 
house  during  the  period  that  Lord  Edward  was  taking 

1  Cormick,  though  apparently  trustworthy  so  long  as  it  was  a 
question  of  his  leader's  safety,  had  afterwards  a  less  satisfactory 
record.  Arrested  in  Guernsey  in  July  of  the  same  year,  on  suspicion, 
by  General  Dalrymple,  he  not  only  made  a  voluntary  confession  of 
his  past  errors,  but  followed  it  up  by  informing  against  an  Irish  sentry, 
who,  he  affirmed,  had  offered  to  assist  him  to  escape — a  proof  of 
contrition  which  appears  to  have  impressed  the  General  very  favourably, 
although  he  was  not  altogether  confident  of  his  penitent's  veracity. 
"  I  think  there  may  be  some  doubt,"  he  wrote,  "  but  I  must  on  the 
whole  bear  a  very  favourable  testimony  to  Mr.  Cormick's  behaviour 
here."    (See  Lord  Casllereagk's  Correspondence.) 

19 


29o  xtfe  of  Xoro  Bowaro  tfit3<Beralo 

shelter  there.  He  had  been  found  playing  billiards 
with  Lawless,  the  surgeon,  and  the  visitor  had  re- 
mained to  dinner  ;  when,  according  to  his  evidence, 
the  conversation  had  turned  upon  the  condition  of 
the  country,  and  the  opinion  unanimously  expressed 
by  those  present — some  four  or  five  of  the  United 
party — had  been  that  the  chances  of  success,  in  the 
event  of  a  rising,  were  small. 

It  was  the  conclusion  to  which  all  sane  men  must 
have  come.  But  it  was  not  a  conclusion  which  neces- 
sarily justified  inaction.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  to  Lord 
Edward  and  his  comrades,  to  recede  from  the 
position  they  had  taken  up,  however  slight  might 
be  the  chances  of  success,  would  have  seemed  an 
abandonment  of  the  cause  to  which  they  were  pledged. 

There  were  other  reasons  rendering  the  relinquish- 
ment of  the  enterprise  impossible.  The  work  of 
the  Government  had  been  done,  and  done  well.  Its 
success  had  been  complete.  "  The  means  " — once 
more  to  quote  Castlereagh's  own  words — "  the  means 
taken  to  make  it  [the  rebellion]  explode,"  had  not  failed 
in  their  object.  The  people  had  been  driven  mad. 
Goaded  into  desperation  by  every  species  of  torture 
that  cruelty  could  devise,  it  was  clear  that,  with 
foreign  aid  or  without  it,  by  the  advice  of  their  leaders 
or  in  spite  of  it,  they  would  not  much  longer  consent 
to  defer  the  appeal  to  physical  force.  And  since  this 
was  the  case,  it  was  not  for  the  men  they  had  trusted 
to  leave  them  to  make  that  appeal  alone.  To  do  so 
would  have  been  to  play  the  part  of  cowards — a  part 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jftt3(Seralo  291 

which,  from  the  young  commander-in-chief  downwards, 
no  men  were  less  qualified  to  act.  It  was  therefore 
becoming  daily  more  evident  that  the  time  was  close 
at  hand  when,  in  spite  of  forebodings  of  failure,  the 
insurrection  upon  which  so  many  hopes  had  been  fixed 
must  be  risked. 

It  was  accordingly  determined,  taking  the  state  of 
the  country  and  the  condition  of  public  feeling  into 
account,  that  to  wait  longer  for  French  aid  was  im- 
possible, and  that  a  general  rising  should  be  arranged 
to  take  place,  so  far  as  might  be,  simultaneously  in 
the  four  provinces  ;  May  23rd  being  the  date  finally 
fixed  upon  for  the  outbreak.  The  younger  of  the 
Sheares  brothers,  now  an  important  member  of  the 
reconstructed  Leinster  Directory,  was  accordingly  de- 
spatched to  Cork  early  in  the  month,  in  order  to 
organise  co-operation  in  that  part  of  the  country ; 
while  in  Leinster,  where  Lord  Edward  intended  to 
take  personal  command,  the  capital  was  to  be  seized, 
the  camp  at  Lehaunstown  surprised,  with  the  artillery 
at  Chapelizod,  and  the  Lord  Lieutenant  and  other 
members  of  the  Government  were  to  be  made  prisoners. 

Such  was  the  desperate  scheme  planned  in  the 
early  days  of  May.  Calling  to  mind  that  conversation 
at  Cormick's  house,  it  is  incredible  but  that  those  by 
whom  the  plot  was  elaborated  must  have  been  aware 
that  it  was  a  forlorn  hope  in  which  they  were  preparing 
to  hazard  their  lives.  But  there  could  be  no  question 
now  of  turning  back. 

Meantime,  as  more  and  more  disquieting  information 


292  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jFtt3<5eralo 

was  received  by  the  Government  as  to  the  condition 
of  the  country,  its  anxiety  to  secure  the  person  of 
the  popular  leader,  and  by  that  means  to  deprive 
the  insurgents  of  the  weight  which,  both  personally 
and  by  reason  of  his  birth  and  name,  he  lent  to 
the  movement,  was  proportionately  increasing.  As 
the  pursuit  became  keener,  Lord  Edward,  with  the 
hope  of  eluding  the  vigilance  of  the  authorities,  was 
moved  with  greater  rapidity  from  one  place  of  con- 
cealment to  another. 

Early  in  May  he  threw  himself  once  more  upon 
the  hospitality  of  Mrs.  Dillon  ;  who,  receiving  at  the 
house  of  a  friend  the  intelligence  that  Miss  FitzGerald, 
from  Athy,  had  arrived  to  visit  her,  proved  herself 
to  be  so  inadequately  trained  in  the  art  of  conspiracy 
as   to  faint  on  the   spot. 

It  is  said  that  during  this  second  visit  to  the  house 
upon  the  Grand  Canal  even  the  small  measure  of 
caution  Lord  Edward  had  hitherto  been  induced  to 
observe  was  thrown  to  the  winds  ;  that  he  received 
constant  visitors  from  Dublin  ;  and  that,  with  the 
excitement  of  the  approaching  conflict  quickening  his 
blood,  he  no  longer  maintained  so  much  as  a  semblance 
of  prudence.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not 
astonishing  that  he  should  have  been  at  length 
apprehended.  But  that  a  man  so  well  known  should 
have  been  able,  for  the  space  of  ten  weeks,  in  Dublin 
or  its  immediate  vicinity,  to  elude  the  pursuit  of  those 
who  were  upon  his  track  is  a  fact  in  any  case 
difficult  to  explain,  and  may  be  accepted  as   a  proof 


Xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowavb  ffit3<Beralo  293 

that  treachery  had  not  been  so  widespread  as  has 
sometimes  been  believed. 

The  recklessness  of  himself  and  his  friends,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  their  party,  came  near  to  being 
criminal  ;  for  if  the  insurrection  was  not  to  be  deprived 
of  its  commander-in-chief,  precaution  was  every  day 
becoming  more  necessary.  On  May  ioth  Captain 
Armstrong's  first  interview  with  the  Sheares  took 
place,  when  he  obtained  information  of  a  part  at  least 
of  the  projects  that  were  drawing  to  a  head,  as  well 
as  of  the  hopes  indulged  by  the  revolutionary  party 
of  gaining  over  the  militia — a  most  important  item 
in  their  programme.  On  the  following  day  the 
Government,  probably  moved  to  the  step  by  the 
disclosures  that  had  been  made,  issued  a  proclamation 
offering  a  thousand  pounds  reward  for  the  apprehension 
of  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald.  It  was  this  measure 
which  ultimately  resulted  in  his  capture ;  though 
whether  to  Higgins,  the  proprietor  of  the  Freeman's 
Journal,  or  to  Francis  Magan,  the  barrister,  who  was 
the  more  immediate  instrument  in  the  process  of 
betrayal,  belongs  the  credit  or  discredit  has  been  a 
much-debated  point. 

An  immense  amount  of  somewhat  unprofitable 
labour  has  been  expended  upon  the  attempt  to  appor- 
tion to  each  of  these  gentlemen  their  proper  amount 
of  responsibility  in  the  transaction.  The  fact  would 
seem  to  be  that  Higgins  occupied  the  position  of 
employer  or  patron — the  go-between  of  ministers  ; 
Magan  being  the  paid  tool.     The  first,  better  known 


294  %ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt3<Seralo 

as  the  "  Sham  Squire,"  into  the  details  of  whose 
disreputable  career  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter, 
though  an  informer,  was  not  in  the  strict  sense  of 
the  word  a  traitor,  having  openly  and  consistently 
given  his  support  to  the  Government.  It  was  his 
office  apparently  to  suborn  other  men.  Magan  was 
his  special  discovery,  introduced  by  him  some  months 
earlier  to  the  authorities  as  a  member  of  the  United 
Irish  Society  from  whom  useful  knowledge  might  be 
bought,  and  who  justified  the  assertion  and  proved 
his  value  at  the  present  juncture  by  furnishing  in- 
formation with  regard  to  Lord  Edward's  movements 
and  whereabouts. 

From  the  documents  that  remain,  it  would  seem 
that  Higgins  experienced  some  amount  of  difficulty 
in  keeping  his   subordinate  firm. 

"  If  you  can  see  M.  this  night,"  he  wrote,  some- 
where about  the  end  of  April,  to  his  employers,  "  you 
can  bring  out  where  Lord  Edward  is  concealed."  And 
again,  "  Remember  to  bring  him  to  a  point — I  mean 
about  Lord  Edward."  It  would  almost  look  as  if 
Magan  were  still  troubled  by  scruples.  The  Govern- 
ment, however,  had  their  own  methods  of  removing 
those  indulged  in  by  needy  men  ;  and  a  fortnight 
later  Higgins  was  able  to  complain  that  "  M.  seems 
mortified  that  when  he  placed  matters  within  the  reach 
of  Government,  the  opportunity  was  neglected."  It 
was   soon,   however,    furnished  with   another. 

Lord  Edward's  second  stay  under  the  roof  of 
Mrs.    Dillon  was   not   of  long  duration.      The  night 


%ifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jftt3(Beralo  295 

of  May  23rd  having  been  definitely  fixed  upon  as 
the  date  upon  which  the  general  rising  should  take 
place,  it  was  essential  that  the  leader  should  be  close 
at  hand,  in  order  that  consultation  might  be  held 
with  him  at  any  moment.  About  the  13th,  therefore, 
he  bade  his  hostess  farewell,  characteristically  sparing 
her  what  anxiety  he  might,  by  leaving  her  with  the 
impression  that  his  visit  to  Dublin  was  merely  con- 
nected with  the  ordinary  business  transactions  of  the 
Society,  and  that  she  might  look  for  his  return  in  no 
long  time. 

It  is  difficult  to  trace  his  movements  with  accuracy 
for  the  succeeding  week,  and  they  are  variously 
chronicled.  The  time  seems  to  have  been  divided 
between  the  private  house  of  James  Moore,  a  public- 
house  keeper,  where  he  enacted  the  part  of  French 
tutor  to  the  daughter  of  his  host  ;  and  the  house 
of  the  same  feather-merchant,  Murphy,  who  had 
previously  shared  with  Moore  and  Cormick  the  perilous 
honour  of  affording  shelter  to  their  chief. 

It  was  to  Moore's  house  that  he  appears  to  have 
gone  first  on  his  arrival  in  Dublin,  remaining  there 
for  some  three  or  four  days.  It  must  have  been 
during  this  interval  that  an  interview  took  place — 
the  last — between  Mr.  Ogilvie  and  his  wife's  son, 
described  by  Miss  Moore  in  reference  to  the  extra- 
ordinary suspicion  of  treachery  from  which  this  tried 
and  trusted  friend  of  a  lifetime  was  not  exempt. 

"  I  know  not  whom  to  trust,"  she  said — as  indeed 
she  might,  remembering  the  implicit  confidence  which 


296  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowarb  ffit3<Beralo 

it  will  be  seen  had  been  placed  by  her  in  Magan.  a  I 
saw  Lord  Edward  take  a  ring  from  his  hand,  and  press 
it  on  Mr.  Ogilvie  as  a  keepsake.  Tears  fell  from 
Mr.  Ogilvie's  eyes  as  he  grasped  Lord  Edward's  hand." 

It  was  a  final  parting.  It  may  be  that  by  both  men 
the  probability  that  it  would  prove  such  had  been 
recognised.  Perhaps,  too,  both  were  thinking  of  the 
mother,  now  grown  old,  alone  in  England  with  the 
weight  of  her  anxiety — an  anxiety  to  which  Lady 
Holland  made  allusion  when,  after  Lord  Edward's 
arrest,  she  expressed  her  fear  that,  should  the  matter 
end  fatally  for  the  "child  of  her  heart,"  it  would  not 
do  less  in  the  case  of  his  mother. 

Lord  Edward,  however,  can  have  had  little  time  or 
thought  to  spare  even  for  those  he  held  dearest. 
During  the  days  passed  at  Moore's  house  another 
incident,  besides  that  interview  with  Mr.  Ogilvie, 
took  place.  A  meeting  was  held  at  which  the  young 
leader  made  a  suggestion  of  so  bold  a  nature  that 
less  daring  spirits  might  well  have  shrunk  from  its 
adoption.  Yet,  hazardous  as  it  was,  carried  into 
effect,  it  might  have  changed  the  outlook  of  affairs. 
The  character  of  the  situation,  the  desperate  condition 
of  the  conspiracy,  demanded  desperate  measures.  It 
might  have  found  in  them  its  best  chance,  though  a 
poor  one,  of  success. 

What  Lord  Edward  proposed  was  no  less  than 
an  attack  upon  the  House  of  Lords,  to  take  place 
on  May  1 8th,  when  Lord  Kingston,  before  the 
assembled    peers,    was    to    undergo    his    trial    for    the 


%ite  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jflt3(Beralb  297 

murder  of  Colonel  FitzGerald,  the  seducer  of  his 
daughter. 

What  chance  of  success,  partial  or  complete,  the 
scheme  would  have  had,  had  Lord  Edward's  suggestion 
been  adopted,  must  remain  in  doubt.  More  timid 
counsels  prevailed  ;  and  it  was  rejected  by  a  majority 
of  two,  of  whom  the  informer  Magan  was  one. 
In  the  report  of  the  occurrence  made  by  Higgins, 
he  added  that  an  attack  on  the  Castle  had  been  agreed 
upon  for  the  following  week  ;  and  he  furthermore,  as 
Magan's  mouthpiece,  supplied  the  information  as  to 
where  Lord   Edward  would  be  found  that  night. 

Magan  had  good  reason  for  being  in  a  position  to 
furnish  this  intelligence,  for,  if  the  account  of  the 
matter  given  by  Miss  Moore  is  to  be  relied  upon — 
and  there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  it — it  was  to  his 
own  care  that  Lord  Edward  was  to  be  consigned. 

It  had  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  conspirators 
that  Moore's  house  had  fallen  under  the  suspicion  of 
the  Government.  A  carpenter  of  the  name  of  Tuite, 
occupied  in  repairing  the  floor  within  the  recess  of  a 
double  door  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Cooke,  had  over- 
heard the  Under-Secretary  observe  that  it  was  to  be 
searched  for  pikes  and  traitors.  The  traitor  behind  the 
door  took  his  measures  promptly.  Wrenching  off 
the  hinge,  he  asked  permission  to  go  and  provide 
himself  with  another,  hurried  to  Moore's  house,  gave 
warning  of  the  impending  visit,  and  went  back  to 
complete  his  interrupted  labours. 

The    intimation   was    acted    upon  at  once.     Moore 


298  xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffltsGeralo 

himself  fled  without  delay,  leaving  it  to  his  daughter 
to  provide  for  Lord  Edward's  safety.  This  she 
accordingly  did  by  arranging  with  her  friend  Mr. 
Francis  Magan  that  he  should  receive  the  fugitive 
that  same  night  at  his  house. 

Magan  was  not  slow  to  avail  himself  of  the 
opportunity  thus  afforded  him.  Acting  upon  the 
intelligence  he  supplied,  it  was  determined  by  Govern- 
ment that  his  expected  guest  should  be  seized  on  the 
way  from  Thomas  Street  to  Usher's  Island,  where 
the  informer  lived.  With  this  object  the  Town 
Major,  Sirr — Lord  Edward's  Gibraltar  acquaintance — 
provided  himself  with  what  he  considered  a  sufficient 
force  to  deal  both  with  the  leader  and  with  the  body- 
guard by  which  it  was  now  his  custom  to  be  ac- 
companied, disposing  his  men  in  two  parties,  in  order 
that  the  rebels  might  be  intercepted  whichever  of 
the  alternative  routes  to  Usher's  Island  they  might 
take,  and  thus  awaited  their  coming. 

As  it  chanced,  the  other  party  had  likewise  separated, 
with  a  view,  no  doubt,  to  avoid  attracting  attention. 
The  result  was  that  a  scuffle  took  place  in  both  streets. 
But  while  Sirr  was  knocked  down  and  in  danger  of 
his  life,  only  a  single  prisoner  was  captured,  and 
one  who  contrived  to  give  so  satisfactory  an  account 
of  himself  that  he  was  presently  released.  Lord 
Edward  made  good  his  escape.  He  gave  up,  however, 
in  consequence  of  the  attack,  his  intention  of  seeking 
shelter  at  Usher's  Island  that  night,  returning  instead 
to  his  former  quarters  in  Thomas  Street,  and  throwing 


%ifc  of  %otb  iSowavb  fit30eralb  259 

himself  again  upon  the  hospitality  of  Murphy,  a  timid 
man  who,  though  faithful  in  spite  of  his  fears,  would 
gladly  have  been  quit  of  the  perilous  responsibility 
thus  thrust  upon  him. 

Once  more — for  the  last  time — Lord  Edward  had 
escaped  the  toils  of  his  enemies.  Almost  at  the 
same  hour,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  another  offender 
against  the  law  had  also  made  good  his  defence, 
though  after  a  different  fashion.  Before  a  brilliant 
assemblage,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Lord  Chancellor 
Clare,  Lord  Kingston  had  been  called  upon  to  answer 
for  the  crime  with  which  he  stood  charged. 

"  Culprit,"  he  had  been  asked  in  the  terms  of  the 
old  formula,  "  by  whom  will  your  lordship  be  tried  ? " 

"  By  God  and  my  peers,"  the  accused  made  reply. 

"  God  send  you  good  deliverance,"  was  the  rejoinder, 
also  prescribed  by  precedent. 

The  aspiration  had  been  heard.  Lord  Kingston 
stood  that  evening  acquitted  of  murder,  on  the  score 
of  justification,  a  free  man.  But  to  the  national  leader, 
awaiting  his  doom  in  the  little  house  in  Thomas 
Street,  no  such  plea  of  justification  would  have  been 
allowed,  bring  forward  as  he  might  the  ruin  of 
countless  homes  in  the  place  of  one. 

He  had  not  long  to  wait.  The  race  for  life  was 
over  ;    the  quarry  was  run  to  earth. 

On  the  morning  succeeding  the  struggle  which  had 
taken  place  between  the  Town  Major  and  Lord 
Edward's  escort,  Magan  paid  a  visit  to  Miss  Moore. 
Whether    or    not    there    had    been    any    truth  in   the 


300  Xife  of  %ovb  Ebwarfc  tfit3<3eralfc 

hints  thrown  out  by  Higgins  as  to  the  difficulty  he 
had  experienced  in  bringing  his  accomplice  to  the 
actual  point  of  betrayal,  it  is  clear  that  those  difficulties 
had  been  overcome,  and  that  he  had  now  taken  kindly 
to  the  part.  His  visit  was  made  for  the  purpose  of 
ascertaining  the  reason  of  the  non-appearance  of  his 
guest  on  the  previous  night,  and  his  careworn  aspect 
— natural  enough,  seeing  that  a  thousand  pounds 
might  be  at  stake — was  remarked  by  Miss  Moore, 
who  doubtless  explained  it  by  the  anxiety  felt  by 
the  conspirator  for  the  safety  of  his  chief. 

"  I  have  been  most  uneasy,"  he  told  her.  "  Did 
anything  happen  ?  I  waited  up  till  one  o'clock,  and 
Lord  Edward  did  not  come." 

Still  wholly  unsuspicious  of  treachery,  Miss  Moore 
fell  at  once  into  the  trap  laid  for  her.  She  not  only 
enlightened  the  informer  as  to  the  occurrences  of  the 
preceding  night — of  which  he  was  probably  himself 
in  a  position  to  have  given  her  an  account — but 
bestowed  upon  him  as  well  the  information  he 
sought  as  to  the  leader's  present  place  of  concealment, 
the  intelligence  being  doubtless  passed  on  without 
loss  of  time —  though  no  evidence  remains  of  this 
fact — through   Higgins  to  the  authorities. 

At  the  time  when  Miss  Moore  made  her  statement 
with  regard  to  her  dealings  with  Magan,  his  guilt 
had  not  been  so  conclusively  brought  home  to  him 
as  afterwards.  Her  own  inference,  however,  arguing 
from  the  course  of  events,  was  clear. 

"  If  Magan  is  innocent,"  she  said,  with  the  bitterness 


%itc  ot  Xorfc  Efcwarfc  3ftt30eralt>  301 

of  a  friend  who  has  trusted  and  has  been  deceived, 
"  then  I  am  the  informer,"  since  they  two  had  alone 
been  in  the  secret  of  Lord  Edward's  intention  of 
seeking  shelter  at  Usher's  Island  when  he  had  been 
waylaid  and  intercepted.  At  the  time  when  Magan's 
visit  was  paid,  though  the  incident  from  which  she 
afterwards  inferred  his  guilt  had  already  taken  place, 
her  confidence  in  him  was  too  complete  to  be  at  once 
dispelled.  Even  had  her  suspicions  been  aroused, 
caution  on  her  part  at  this  stage  would  have  availed 
but  little  to  avert  the  approaching  catastrophe. 

Murphy,  on  Lord  Edward's  arrival  at  his  house  the 
night  before,  had  been  struck  by  his  altered  appearance. 
It  was  little  wonder.  The  life  he  had  been  leading, 
the  constant  strain  both  on  body  and  mind,  be  a  man's 
courage  and  spirit  what  it  may,  does  not  leave  him 
as  it  finds  him.  He  was  also  ill,  and  suffering  from 
a  cold.  There  was,  however,  no  time  to  indulge  in 
sickness,  and  the  next  morning  he  declared  himself 
better.  It  was  a  Saturday — the  Saturday  after  Ascension 
Day — and  for  the  Wednesday  or  Thursday  following 
the  general  rising  was  planned.  Yet,  notwithstanding 
the  nearness  of  the  crisis  and  the  supreme  necessity 
for  prudence  during  the  brief  space  of  time  which 
was  to  intervene,  incident  after  incident  betrayed  the 
almost  incredible  heedlessness  of  the  conspirators  with 
regard  to  the  commonest  precautions. 

As  Murphy,  anxious  and  nervous,  stood  before 
his  door  on  the  morning  after  Lord  Edward's  arrival, 
a    parcel    was    silently    placed    in    his    hands.       Being 


302  %itc  of  Xoro  Bowaro  jftt3(5eralo 

opened,  it  was  found  to  contain  a  military  uniform, 
manifestly  intended  for  the  use  of  the  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  projected  insurrection — a  compromising 
possession,  both  for  host  and  guest,  which  was  promptly 
concealed  under  a  heap  of  goat-skins  in  a  loft.  The 
imprudence,  too,  of  which  Neilson  was  guilty  was 
such  as  would  have  rendered  it  a  miracle  had 
attention  not  been  attracted  to  Murphy's  house,  and 
it  drew  down  upon  him,  probably  quite  unjustly, 
the  suspicion  of  bad  faith.  The  gigantic  figure  of  the 
conspirator  was  constantly  on  view,  now  patrolling 
the  street,  now  pausing  at  the  door  of  Lord  Edward's 
unfortunate  host,  to  bestow  upon  him  wholly  super- 
fluous injunctions  as  to  the  necessity  for  caution. 

Lord  Edward  himself  meanwhile,  warned  by  the 
sight  of  a  party  of  soldiers  passing  down  the  street 
and  making  a  halt  before  Moore's  house,  had  betaken 
himself  to  a  place  of  concealment  upon  the  roof, 
where  he  spent  some  hours  of  the  afternoon.  But  as 
evening  drew  on,  it  was  considered  safe  for  the 
fugitive  to  leave  his  hiding-place,  and  he  accordingly 
came  down  to  dinner,  sharing  the  meal  with  his  host 
and  Neilson. 

It  was  scarcely  over  when  the  latter,  for  whose 
movements  it  is  always  difficult  to  account,  suddenly 
quitted  the  house,  leaving,  it  was  said,  the  outer  door 
open.  Murphy,  meanwhile  went  downstairs,  while 
Lord  Edward,  still  ill  and  tired,  withdrew  to  the  room 
he  occupied,  where  he  was  presently  found  by  his 
host,  lying  upon  the  bed,  reading  Gil  Bias. 


Xife  ot  Xorfc  Eowaro  tftt36eral£>         303 

The  end  was  close  at  hand.  It  was  when  the  two 
men  were  together  that  the  sound  of  steps  became 
audible  upon  the  stairs  ;  and  the  next  moment  Sirr's 
assistant,  Major  Swan,  entered  the  room.  Lord 
Edward  had  been  tracked  at  last. 

Of  the  scene  which  followed  varying  accounts  have 
been  given.  The  surprise  party  consisted  of  Sirr 
himself,  Swan,  and  eight  or  nine  private  soldiers, 
together  with  a  Captain  Ryan,  who  seems  to  have 
accompanied  the  party  in  the  character  of  a  volunteer. 
Sirr  had  at  first  remained  below,  disposing  of  his  men 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  frustrate  any  attempt  which 
might  be  made  at  escape  ;  and  Swan,  though  closely 
followed  by  Ryan,  entered  alone  the  room  where 
Lord  Edward  was  discovered. 

At  the  first  sight  of  the  intruder  Lord  Edward 
sprang  to  his  feet,  and,  receiving  a  shot  from  a 
pocket  pistol  which  missed  its  aim,  struck  at  his 
assailant  with  a  dagger  which  had  lain  by  him  on 
the  bed. 

According  to  the  account  afterwards  given  by  Ryan's 
son,  Swan — whose  wound  was  in  truth  very  superficial 
and  was  well  in  a  fortnight — thereupon  cried  out, 
"  Ryan,  Ryan,  I  am  basely  murdered,"  when  Ryan, 
who  appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  courage,  ran  in 
to  his  assistance,  armed  only  with  a  sword-cane ; 
received  what  proved  to  be,  in  his  case,  a  mortal 
wound,  and  continued,  in  spite  of  it,  to  cling  to 
Lord  Edward  till  further  help  arrived. 

Sirr,  meanwhile,   hearing  from   below  the  report  of 


304         Xife  ot  %otb  Efcwarfc  jftt3(Beralt> 

the  pistol-shot  fired  by  Swan  on  his  first  entrance, 
had  hurried  upstairs,  and  has  left,  in  a  letter  addressed 
to  the  younger  Ryan,  a  description  of  the  scene  which 
met  his  eyes. 

"  On  my  arrival  in  view  of  Lord  Edward,"  he  wrote, 
"  I  beheld  his  lordship  standing  with  a  dagger  in 
his  hand,  as  if  ready  to  plunge  it  into  my  friends, 
while  dear  Ryan,  seated  on  the  bottom  step  of  the 
flight  of  the  upper  stairs  [communicating  with  the 
roof],  had  Lord  Edward  grasped  with  both  his  arms 
by  the  legs  and  thighs,  and  Swan  in  a  somewhat 
similar  situation,  both  labouring  under  the  torment 
of  their  wounds  ;  when,  without  hesitation,  I  fired 
at  Lord  Edward's  dagger-arm,  when  the  instrument 
of  death  fell  to  the  ground." 

Weaponless  and  wounded,  Lord  Edward  still  refused 
to  surrender,  making  a  last  attempt  to  force  his  way 
to  the  door.  The  soldiers,  however,  were  called  in, 
and,  in  spite  of  his  desperate  resistance,  he  was  made 
prisoner,  though  "  so  outrageous  was  he  " — to  quote 
Ryan — "  that  the  military  had  to  cross  their  muskets, 
and  force  him  down  to  the  floor,  before  he  could  be 
overpowered  and  secured." 

Thus  ended  the  struggle.  The  people's  leader  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  On  this  night — possibly 
at  this  very  hour — Magan  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  head  Committee  of  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen. 


CHAPTER    XIX 

1798 

Conduct  when  a  Prisoner — Various  Scenes  in  Dublin — 
Pamela — The  Facts  and  her  Account  of  Them  at 
Variance — Her  After-life — Visit  to  Barere — Death. 

THE  capture    was  effected  ;    the  game,  so   far  as 
Lord  Edward  was  concerned,  lost.     But  he  was 
a  man  who  knew  how  to  face  defeat. 

The  heat  and  excitement  of  the  struggle  over,  all  his 
habitual  gentleness  and  courtesy  was  apparent.  He 
affected,  says  the  Annual  Register^  with  a  sneer,  in 
chronicling  the  event,  the  politeness  of  a  courtier,  and 
declared  he  was  sorry  for  the  wounds  he  had  inflicted. 
It  was  evidently  not  credible  to  the  writer  that  con- 
sideration towards  opponents  hurt  in  the  performance 
of  their  duty  could  be  genuine  in  the  case  of  a  man 
whose  resistance,  while  resistance  was  possible,  had 
been  so  fierce.  Those  who  knew  him  would  have 
judged  differently.  Insisting  that  the  wounds  of  his 
adversaries  should  be  attended  to  before  his  own,  it 
was  only  when  he  had  been  informed,  with  purposeless 
exaggeration,  that  Ryan  was  dead  and  Swan  mortally 

305  20 


3o6  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt3<Beralo 

wounded,  that  he  consented  to  allow  his  arm  to  be 
dressed,  adding,  "It  was  a  hard  struggle — and  are  two 
of  them  gone  ?  " 

His  own  wound,  on  examination,  was  pronounced 
not  to  be  dangerous,  the  announcement  eliciting  from 
him  the  solitary  expression  of  regret  that  has  already 
been  noticed.  Exhausted  not  alone  by  the  pain  and 
fatigue  of  the  moment,  but  worn  out  physically  and 
mentally  by  the  constant  stress  and  strain  of  the  last 
two  months  ;  debarred  from  participation  in  the 
struggle  for  which  he  had  so  strenuously  prepared 
the  way,  and  rendered  useless  to  the  cause  for  whose 
sake  he  had  sacrificed  all  the  world  had  to  offer,  he  may 
indeed  have  been  willing  to  close  his  account  with 
life,  and  to  make  an  end  of  the  tragedy  it  had  become. 

At  the  Castle,  to  which  he  was  at  once  taken,  he 
had  an  interview  with  Lord  Camden's  private  secretary, 
Mr.  Watson,  who,  sent  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to 
assure  the  prisoner  of  every  consideration  consistent 
with  the  safe  custody  of  his  person,  found  him  in  the 
office  of  the  Minister  for  War,  looking  on,  pallid  but 
serene,  while  his  wounded  arm  was  dressed. 

The  secretary,  a  courteous  and  kindly  official,  took 
an  opportunity,  after  delivering  the  message  with  which 
he  was  charged,  of  informing  the  prisoner  privately  that 
it  was  to  be  also  his  errand  to  convey  the  news  of  the 
arrest  to  Lady  Edward,  intimating,  with  every  promise 
of  secrecy,  his  readiness  to  be  likewise  the  bearer  of 
any  confidential  communication  from  Lord  Edward  to 
his  wife. 


Xifc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fft3<Seralo  307 

One  might  almost  imagine  that  the  offer  must 
have  provoked  an  inward  smile.  Experience  of  the 
principles  acted  upon  by  Government  with  regard 
to  means  of  obtaining  information  would  not  have 
encouraged  even  so  confiding  a  spirit  as  that  of  their 
present  prisoner  to  entrust  a  communication  of  the 
kind  suggested  to  a  Castle  official,  however  accom- 
modating. At  any  rate,  the  proposal  was  courteously 
declined. 

"  No,  no,  thank  you,"  Lord  Edward  answered. 
"  Nothing,  nothing.     Only  break  it  to  her  tenderly." 

The  interview  with  Pamela  did  not,  after  all,  take 
place,  since  she  chanced,  somewhat  strangely,  to  be 
absent  from  home,  at  a  party  at  Moira  House.  The 
news  of  her  husband's  capture  was  therefore  left  by  the 
secretary  with  her  servants,  and,  through  Lady  Moira's 
thoughtful  consideration,  was  not  allowed  to  reach 
her  till  the  following  morning. 

It  is  strange,  looking  back  over  more  than  a 
hundred  years,  to  call  to  mind  the  various  scenes 
which  were  taking  place  on  that  May  evening  in 
Dublin.  At  some  of  them,  thanks  to  the  detailed 
contemporary  records,  we  can  be  present.  There  was, 
first,  the  desperate  struggle  in  Thomas  Street,  the 
excitement  of  the  conflict  followed  by  the  dead  calm 
of  irretrievable  failure  ;  there  was  the  party  at  Lady 
Moira's  house,  at  which  Pamela,  still  delicate  after 
her  baby's  birth,  and  little  inclined,  one  would 
imagine,  for  gaiety,  was  assisting,  charming  as  ever, 
and  no    doubt,    in  her    ignorance    of  the  catastrophe, 


308  Xtfe  of  Xoro  JEowaro  tftt3<Berato 

of  which  rumours  must  have  begun  to  be  whispered 
abroad,  an  object  of  compassion  to  all.  Then  there 
was  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  with  a  party  of  his  own 
at  the  theatre,  where  news  was  brought  to  him  of 
the  important  capture.  In  an  adjoining  box,  within 
hearing  of  the  announcement,  Lady  Castlereagh  was 
entertaining  her  guests,  two  of  the  Napiers  amongst 
them,  of  whom  one — Louisa,  Lady  Sarah's  step- 
daughter— was  so  much  overcome  that  her  hostess 
took  her  away  ;  while  a  younger  sister,  Emily,  Lord 
Edward's  own  cousin — who,  "  poor  little  soul,  was 
wretched,  as  you  may  imagine  " — was  not  permitted 
to  leave  the  box,  lest  so  many  abrupt  departures, 
in  the  condition  of  Dublin  at  the  time,  should  have 
given  rise  to  a  panic.  Nor  does  one  forget  that  else- 
where in  the  city  Magan  was  receiving  his  promotion 
in  the  Society  he  had  served  by  the  betrayal  of  its 
chief,  not  impossibly  still  careworn  in  aspect,  as  Miss 
Moore  had  described  him,  and  with  his  thoughts 
wandering  from  the  proceedings  in  which  he  was 
taking  part  to  the  house  in  Thomas  Street,  and  to 
speculations  as  to  whether  his  thousand  pounds  were 
at  length  fairly  earned. 

Outside,  in  the  streets  of  the  city,  as  the  news 
leaked  out  and  became  public  property,  consternation 
was  spreading.  Men  were  collecting  together  in 
groups  to  discuss  the  event,  or  were  seen  hurrying 
from  one  part  of  the  town  to  the  other  ;  and  some 
of  the  more  desperate  and  more  daring  were  arming 
themselves  with  pikes,  in  the  forlorn   hope  of  effect- 


Xife  of  Xorb  Eowaro  tftt3(Seralo  309 

ing  a  rescue — a  hope  perforce  relinquished  when  it 
became  known  that  their  leader  had  been  already- 
removed  from  the  Castle  to  the  securer  precincts 
of  Newgate  Jail,  a  stronghold  to  which  no  follower, 
however  loyal,  could  force  an  entrance. 

Upon  Lord  Edward's  family  the  intelligence  of 
the  arrest  fell  like  a  thunderbolt.  Well  informed  as 
to  his  movements  as  the  Government  had  been,  in 
comparison,  and  though,  according  to  Miss  Moore's 
account  of  his  interview  with  Mr.  Ogilvie,  his  step- 
father at  least  must  have  been  aware  of  his  presence  in 
Dublin,  the  rest  of  his  relations  were  strongly  con- 
vinced that  he  had  effected  his  escape,  and  was  safe 
out  of  the  country.  Lady  Louisa  herself,  though 
ever  prone  to  fears,  had  scarcely  felt  alarm  at  the 
reward  offered  by  Government  for  his  apprehension. 
In  this  instance  it  was  clear  that  Pamela  had  kept 
her  own  counsel ;  and  it  may  have  been  to  the 
necessity  of  avoiding  the  appearance  of  anxiety  that 
her  presence  at  Moira  House  on  the  night  of  the 
arrest  had  been  due. 

Pamela  herself,  though  apparently  dazed  by  the 
blow — "  her  head  seemed  still  deranged,"  wrote  Lady 
Louisa — had  borne  it  better  than  had  been  expected. 
She  was  indeed  described  by  Colonel  Napier,  from  whom 
she  received  a  visit  in  the  course  of  the  next  day,  as 
keeping  up  her  spirits  and  bearing  her  misfortunes  like 
a  heroine — a  form  of  encomium  which  one  may  be 
pardoned  for  believing  would  have  specially  commended 
itself  to  the  subject  of  the  tribute.     It  is  clear  that  the 


3io  Xffe  of  Xorb  lEowaro  3fit30eralo 

courage  she  displayed  was  only  explicable  to  the  narrator 
by  the  hypothesis  of  her  ignorance  of  the  gravity  of  the 
situation.  "Alas  !  "  he  added,  writing  to  Mr.  Ogilvie, 
now  back  again  in  England,  "  she  does  not  know  what 
I  dread  to  be  true,  that  Government  have  strong  and 
even  indubitable  proofs  of  treason." 

Again  the  question  repeats  itself — Was  Colonel 
Napier  right  ?  Was  Pamela  strangely,  incredibly, 
blind  ?  Did  she  in  truth  succeed  in  deceiving  herself 
as  to  the  degree  of  her  husband's  culpability  in  the 
eyes  of  those  who  had  his  life  in  their  hands  ?  Or 
did  her  powers  of  concealing  what  she  knew,  even  now 
that  the  crisis  was  reached  and  the  blow  had  fallen, 
from  those  to  whom  Lord  Edward  was  scarcely  less 
dear  than  to  herself,  amount  almost  to  genius? 

At  any  rate,  she  was  winning  golden  opinions.  In 
the  letter  already  quoted,  dated  two  days  after  the 
capture,  Colonel  Napier  again  makes  mention  of  her. 
After  informing  Ogilvie  that  George  Ponsonby  and 
Curran  were  to  be  Lord  Edward's  counsel,  and  adding 
the  warning  that  the  former  "  feared  the  event,"  he 
expresses  his  hope  that  poor,  dear,  intrepid  Lady 
Edward  "will  cross  to  England,  in  obedience  to  the 
orders  of  the  Privy  Council,  Ponsonby  being  of  opinion 
that  she  could  be  of  no  use  in  Dublin." 

The  statement  requires  explanation.  The  part 
played  by  Pamela  during  the  brief  remainder  of  her 
husband's  life  is  perplexing  in  the  extreme,  and 
may  be  disposed  of  here.  Of  the  affectionate  nature  of 
their  relations  there  can  be  no  doubt.     Lord  Edward 


Xife  of  Xorb  Eowaro  3Fit3<3eralD         311 

had  more  than  once,  during  the  weeks  that  he  passed 
in  hiding,  risked  his  life  in  order  to  visit  her ;  his 
mother's  evidence  remains  to  testify  that  he  "  adored 
her";  and  if  further  proof  were  wanting,  it  would  be 
furnished  by  the  will,  drawn  up  in  prison,  bequeathing 
to  his  wife  all  he  possessed,  "  as  a  mark  of  my  esteem, 
love,  and  confidence  in  her,"  and  constituting  her 
likewise  sole  guardian  of  his  children. 

That  Pamela  loved  him  as  much  as  she  was  capable 
of  loving  there  is  also  no  reason  to  doubt  ;  nor  is 
there  a  trace  of  any  cloud  upon  their  married  life.  Yet 
that  she  should  have  brought  herself,  though  in  "  sad 
distress,"  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  Government — them- 
selves difficult  of  comprehension  in  their  extreme  and 
wanton  severity — when,  judging  by  the  phrasing  of 
Colonel  Napier's  letter,  disobedience  had  not  been 
altogether  out  of  the  question,  is  a  fact  which  seems 
scarcely  credible. 

Nevertheless,  on  May  22  nd,  not  more  than  three 
days  after  the  arrest,  Lady  Louisa  Conolly  was  able  to 
announce  to  her  sister  that  the  departure  of  her 
nephew's  wife  for  England  was  finally  determined 
upon  ;  that  the  hopes  entertained  by  Pamela  of  being 
permitted  to  share  her  husband's  prison  had  been 
already  relinquished  ;  and,  strangest  of  all,  when  Lady 
Louisa  had  made  a  further  and  vain  attempt  to 
obtain  for  his  wife  the  privilege  of  a  single  farewell 
interview — a  request  which,  if  pressed,  the  Irish 
Government  itself  would  have  found  difficult  to 
refuse — Pamela  had  negatived  the  suggestion,  on  the 


3i2  %\tc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffft3<5eralo 

score  of  a  fear  lest  such  an  indulgence  might  be  the 
means  of  causing  an  accession  of  fever  to  the  prisoner. 
This  curious  and,  again,  almost  incredible  instance 
of  prudence  on  her  part,  implies  a  realisation  of  his 
condition  rendering  it  still  more  incomprehensible  that 
she  should  have  consented  to  put  the  sea  between 
them. 

Explain  the  matter  as  we  may,  the  fact  remains  that 
before  a  week  was  over — on  the  Thursday  following 
the  capture — Pamela  had  yielded  to  a  mandate  which 
it  may  be  believed  that,  with  public  opinion  to  con- 
sider, ministers  would  have  hesitated  to  enforce  in 
the  face  of  a  determined  resistance,  and  had  left  her 
husband  behind,  wounded,  a  prisoner,  and  in  danger 
of  his  life  from  other  causes.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  motives  which  decided  her,  or  her  advisers, 
upon  the  step,  they  will  strike  the  ordinary  mind  as 
insufficient.  Not  more  than  ten  days  after  she  had 
quitted  Dublin,  Lord  Edward  was  dead. 

It  is  fair  to  add  that  it  does  not  appear  to  have 
occurred  to  her  husband's  relations  to  criticise  her 
conduct.  On  the  contrary,  while  his  mother  was 
preparing,  be  the  condition  of  the  country  what  it 
might,  to  come  to  Ireland;  while  Henry  FitzGerald 
was  hurrying  over  to  Dublin  to  share,  if  it  might 
be,  his  brother's  cell  ;  while  his  aunt  was  besieging 
the  authorities  with  entreaties  to  be  allowed  admission 
to  the  prison,  and,  though  only  at  the  eleventh  hour, 
gained  her  point,  the  absence  of  his  wife  seems  to 
have   been    accepted    on    all    hands   as    natural,    or   at 


Xife  of  Xorb  Eowaro  2flt36eralo  313 

least  inevitable.  Tender  as  is  every  allusion  to  her, 
pitiful  in  her  forlorn  condition,  all  appear  to  have  been 
agreed  that  she  was  better  away. 

There  were  doubtless  reasons — sentiment  apart — 
making  it  expedient  that  Pamela  should  cross  the 
Channel.  The  prejudice,  according  to  Lady  Louisa, 
prevailing  against  her  from  the  first  as  a  French- 
woman— no  doubt  amongst  ministerialists — had  so 
much  increased  that  it  was  considered  safer  for  her 
to  be  out  of  the  country.  This  statement  is  further 
explained  by  an  entry  in  Lady  Holland's  diary,  dated 
June  10th,  to  the  effect  that  it  had  been  notified  to 
Lord  Edward's  wife  that  in  case  of  disobedience 
she  would  herself  be  arrested  and  tried,  evidence 
sufficient  being  forthcoming  to  hang  her.  Lady 
Holland  adds  that  Pamela  had  been  willing  to  stand 
her  trial,  provided  she  was  permitted  to  share  her 
husband's  prison.  This  being  refused,  she  had  been 
compelled  to  come  to  England,  accompanied  by  her 
two  children,  with   a  passport  limiting  her  stay.1 

Allowing  for  some  exaggeration,  and  observing  that 
the  mistake  in  the  number  of  the  children  does  not 
indicate  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  facts,  it 
still  remains  possible  that  a  certain  amount  of  intimida- 
tion may  have  been  resorted  to  by  the  authorities. 
This  should  be  allowed  its  weight  in  judging  of 
Pamela's  conduct  at  this  crisis.  But  there  is  yet 
another  curious  circumstance  to  be  noted  in  connection 
with  the  affair — namely,  the  entire  disagreement  of 
1  Life  and  Letters  of  Lady  Sarah  Lennox  (Appendix). 


314  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt30eralo 

the  account  of  the  matter  apparently  given  by  Pamela 
in  later  days  with  that  furnished  by  contemporaneous 
letters,  by  which  the  question  of  her  movements  is 
placed  beyond  all  doubt.  Hers  was  a  totally  different 
tale — a  story,  it  is  necessary  to  add,  so  manifestly 
false,  tested  both  by  external  and  internal  evidence,  in 
some  of  its  features,  that  it  is  impossible,  however 
charitably  disposed,  to  view  this  version  of  the  affair 
in  any  other  light  but  that  of  a  romance  in  which, 
by  an  after-thought,  she  assigned  to  herself  the  part 
which  she  would  have  desired  in  retrospect  to  play. 
That  Pamela,  as  she  asserted,  sold  her  jewels  and 
attempted  to  bribe  the  jailer  is  probable  enough.  She 
was  generous  and  open-handed,  and  was  not  likely 
to  have  spared  money  in  such  a  case.  It  has  even 
been  suggested  that  an  endeavour  to  bribe  the  Newgate 
officials  may  furnish  a  possible  explanation  of  the 
otherwise  inexplicable  severity  of  the  Government  in 
banishing  her  from  Ireland.  But  of  the  interview 
with  her  husband  she  appears  to  have  represented 
herself  as  obtaining,  with  its  melodramatic  colour- 
ing, there  exists  no  faintest  independent  proof,  and 
it  must  be  dismissed  as  either  an  hysterical  delusion 
or  as  a  pure  result  of  the  inventive  faculty  of  Madame 
de  Genlis's  pupil.1 

So  Lord  Edward's  wife  disappears  from  his  history — 
a  graceful,  slight  figure,  not  without  a  delicate  charm 
of  her  own,   but   most    unfit    for   the    stormy    scenes 

1  See  Maddens  United  Irishmen  for   the   authority  on   which  this 
story  rests. 


%itc  of  3Lorb  Eowaro  jftt3<3eralo  315 

with  which  she  had  been  associated  in  France  and 
Ireland  alike,  and  incapable  of  grappling  with  life  in  its 
harsher  aspects. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  her  through  her 
subsequent  history — her  marriage  with  the  American 
Consul  at  Hamburg,  her  separation  from  her  husband, 
and  the  events  which  marked  her  after-life.  One 
glimpse  of  her  will  be  enough,  and  it  is  still  in 
character. 

Thirty  years  after  Lord  Edward's  death  it  occurred 
to  her  one  day — the  motive  of  the  disguise  is  not 
apparent — to  visit  her  early  friend,  Barere,  in  the 
character  of  her  own  maid.  Recognising  in  his  guest 
the  girl  to  whom,  nearly  forty  years  ago,  he  had  acted 
the  part,  required  by  French  law,  of  "guardian,"  on 
the  occasion  of  her  marriage,  he  produced  a  portrait 
of  herself  which  he  had  preserved,  and  showed  it 
to  her. 

"  z/fhj  mon  Dieu"  she  exclaimed,  no  longer  attempt- 
ing to  keep  up  the  farce  of  her  incognito,  "  comme 
fetais  jolie  !  "  begging  the  miniature  of  him,  in  order 
that  she  might  prove  to  another  friend  how  great 
her  past  beauty   had  been. 

A  year  later  she  died,  worth  only  a  hundred 
francs.  The  husband  from  whom  she  had  separated 
paid  her  debts,  and  the  funeral  was  provided  by  her 
old  playfellow,  Madame  Adelaide. 


CHAPTER    XX 

1798 

Attempts  to  ensure  a  Fair  Trial — Prince  of  Wales — Con- 
spiracy to  Rescue — Lord  Edward's  Condition — Harshness 
of  the  Government — Refusal  to  admit  his  Family — 
Change  for  the  Worse — Last  Interview  with  Lady  Louisa 
.  Conolly  and  his  Brother— Death — And  Burial— Summing 
Up. 

LORD  EDWARD'S  friends  had  lost  no  time  in 
taking  measures  to  ensure  him  his  best  chance 
of  life.  Lady  Louisa  indeed,  judging,  after  her 
indulgent  fashion,  by  "  dear  Lord  Castlereagh's " 
distress,  felt  no  doubts  as  to  the  good  intentions  of 
the  Government,  so  far  at  least  as  a  strict  and  impartial 
administration  of  justice  was  concerned.  But  no  effort 
was  left  untried  by  others  less  confident  in  the  fair 
dealing  of  the  authorities  to  obtain  the  postpone- 
ment of  the  trial  until  such  time  as  the  condition  of 
the  public  nerves,  with  the  absence  of  the  chances  ot 
intimidation  of  jurors  and  witnesses  resulting  from  the 
operation  of  martial  law,  should  promise  a  more 
dispassionate  treatment  of  the  case  than  could  be 
hoped  for  at  the  present  moment  of  panic. 

316 


%itc  of  Xoro  Eowaro  tftt3<Beralo  317 

The  Duke  of  Richmond — moved,  as  Lord  Holland 
hints,  to  the  greater  zeal  in  the  matter  by  the  remem- 
brance of  some  past  acts  of  unkindness — was  urging 
upon  Pitt  the  necessity  of  postponement  ;  and,  writing 
to  Lord  Henry  FitzGerald,  he  added,  after  enumer- 
ating the  obvious  dangers  which  would  attend  an 
immediate  trial,  that  he  convinced  himself  that  the 
thing  was  impossible,  and  that  reasonable  delay  would 
be  allowed.  Fox,  who  is  described  as  "  extremely 
agitated "  about  his  cousin,  though  personally  of 
opinion  that  his  presence  in  Ireland  would  be  more 
detrimental  than  favourable  to  Lord  Edward's  cause, 
held  himself,  with  Lord  Holland,  in  readiness  to  cross 
the  Channel  without  delay,  should  it  be  otherwise 
decided   by  better  judges. 

Pressure  was  also  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  those 
iii  high  places,  to  induce  them  to  exert  themselves 
upon  the  prisoner's  behalf. 

The  Duchess  at  the  feet  of  the  King — such  was 
Colonel  Napier's  opinion — might  do  more  than 
politicians  or  lawyers.  Let  her  therefore  stop  at  no 
forms  or  refusals,  and  never  quit  him  till  a  pardon  was 
obtained.  It  was  known  that  the  Duke  of  York  had 
entertained  a  personal  liking  for  Lord  Edward,  and 
had  attempted,  though  in  vain,  to  obtain  the  cancelling 
of  his  expulsion  from  the  army  ;  while  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  in  a  letter  full  of  kindly  sympathy  for  the 
disaster  which  had  overtaken  the  Leinster  family, 
alluded  to  the  arch-rebel  as  "  the  unfortunate  Edward," 
and  authorised  Mr.  Ogilvie  to  intimate  to  Lord  Clare 


318  Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  jfit3©eralo 

the  satisfaction  which  would  be  afforded  him  by  such 
a  delay  as  might  ensure  "  poor  Lord  Edward "  an 
impartial  trial. 

"  This,  my  dear  sir,"  added  the  Prince,  "  I  have  no 
scruple  to  admit  of  your  stating  in  confidence,  and 
with  my  best  compliments  to  the  Lord  Chancellor. 
My  long  and  sincere  regard  for  both  the  Duchess  and 
Duke  of  Leinster  would  have  naturally  made  me 
wish  to  exert  myself  still  more,  were  I  not  afraid  by 
such  exertion  I  might  do  more  harm  than  good."1 

Dublin  itself  had  not  accepted  passively  the  loss  of 
the  popular  leader  ;  and  a  plot  having  his  rescue  for 
its  object  had  been  organised  by  Neilson — poor, 
violent,  irresponsible  Neilson,  to  whose  rashness  and 
folly  Lord  Edward's  capture  has  been  partly  attributed. 
It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  compassion  for  this  member 
of  the  dramatis  persons  of  the  tragedy,  void  of 
principle  as  he  was,  now  breaking  his  pledges  to 
Government,  by  whom  he  had  been  released  from 
prison  upon  his  undertaking  to  join  no  treasonable 
conspiracy  ;  now  trafficking  with  its  agents,  not 
impossibly  with  the  intention  of  paying  them  back  in 
their  own  coin  of  treachery  ;  at  another   time   crying 

1  It  is  a  curious  testimony  to  the  affection  which  Lord  Edward  seems 
to  have  had  the  special  faculty  of  inspiring  in  all  who  were  brought 
into  personal  contact  with  him  that  it  is  said  that,  on  the  Prince's  first 
interview  with  the  Duchess  at  this  time,  he  wept  with  the  tenderness 
of  a  woman  in  speaking  of  him,  giving  her  further  the  promise  that 
his  friend's  little  son  should  not  be  forgotten  by  him.  It  was  a  promise 
he  fulfilled  later  on,  not  only  by  his  attitude  in  the  matter  of  the 
attainder,  but  by  appointing  the  boy,  so  soon  as  he  left  school,  to  be  a 
cornet  in  his  own  regiment. 


Xife  of  %o?b  E&warfc  3ftt3<Beral5  319 

like  a  child  over  the  body  of  a  dead  comrade  ;  and 
at  the  present  moment  imperilling  his  own  safety  by 
haunting  the  jail  in  which  his  leader  was  confined, 
until  warned  by  signs  from  the  sympathetic  deputy 
jailor  of  the  risk  he  was  incurring.  It  was  unlikely 
that  a  plot  organised  by  such  a  head  should  attain  its 
end  ;  nor  was  it  probable  that  the  Government,  once 
in  possession  of  Lord  Edward's  person,  would  allow 
him  to  slip  through  its  fingers.  The  conspiracy,  at 
any  rate,  made  known  to  the  authorities  by  means  of 
a  priest,  was  easily  brought  to  nought. 

But  while  all  these  efforts,  at  home  and  in  London, 
were  being  made  on  his  behalf ;  while  the  news  of 
his  capture  had  fallen  like  a  thunderbolt  upon  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  throughout  the  country  who 
had  looked  to  him  as  their  leader  ;  while  the  unhappy 
people,  left  almost  without  guidance,  but  still  passion- 
ately refusing  to  relinquish  hope,  were  rising  here 
and  there,  to  fling  themselves  in  desperation  on  the 
troops, — while  all  this  and  much  more  was  going  on 
outside,  and  hearts  were  breaking  for  him,  the  prisoner 
himself,  within  the  walls  of  his  quiet  cell  at  Newgate, 
was  preparing  to  render  unnecessary  the  endeavours 
of  his  friends  to  secure  him  a  fair  trial.  Before  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  letter  had  been  written,  he  had  made 
good  his  escape  to  a  place  where  the  arm  of  the  law 
was  powerless  to  reach  him,  and  where  eternal  Justice 
would  try  his  cause. 

For  the  first  few  days  after  his  arrest,  although  the 
ball  in  his  arm  could  not  be  extracted,  his  condition 


32o  xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffit3(Beralo 

had  caused  but  little  anxiety.  The  heat  of  the 
May  weather  was,  however,  unfavourable  to  his  re- 
covery, and  certain  other  injuries,  especially  a  wound 
in  the  neck  inflicted  by  a  drummer  when  the  affray 
was  over,   caused  him   additional  suffering. 

For  information  as  to  his  state  his  family  were 
compelled  to  content  themselves  with  second-hand 
reports,  the  Government  being  inexorable  in  its 
refusal  to  permit  the  visits  of  either  relations  or 
friends.  It  is,  therefore,  only  through  the  medium  of 
those  admitted  to  him  on  the  strength  of  their  being 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other  that  any  details  as 
to  the  earlier  days  of  his  imprisonment  are  to  be 
obtained.  Yet,  even  under  these  circumstances,  every 
one  of  the  few  facts  recorded  bear  witness  to  the 
same  spirit  of  gentleness,  consideration,  and  courtesy 
by  which  he  had  ever  been  distinguished. 

One  of  his  first  visitors  seems  to  have  been  the 
son  of  a  friend  of  Lord  Clare's.  Gaining  admission 
to  the  prison  on  the  plea  of  business  with  Murphy — 
also  confined  in  Newgate,  and  chancing  to  be  a  tenant 
of  his  father's — he  contrived  to  obtain  access  to  the 
second  and  more  important  captive  as  well  ;  when 
Lord  Edward,  remembering  a  blow  he  had  seen 
his    unfortunate    host    receive    during    the     struggle 

O  DO 

in  Thomas  Street,  enquired  faintly  after  "  poor 
Murphy's  face."  Lord  Holland,  too,  records  as  an 
instance  of  his  cousin's  sweetness  of  nature  the 
debonair  good  humour  with  which  he  took  leave 
of  another  guest — one  of  his  bitterest  enemies — who 


Xife  ot  Xorfc  Efcwarfc  jfit3<5eralt>  321 

had  visited  him,  for  what  purpose  is  not  stated,  in 
his  mangled  condition. 

"  I  would  shake  hands  with  you  willingly,"  said 
the  prisoner,  "  but  mine  are  cut  to  pieces.  However, 
I'll  shake  a  toe,  and  wish  you  good-bye." 

He  was  careful  to  acquit  of  all  malice  Major  Sirr, 
from  whom  his  principal  wound  had  been  received, 
differing  in  this  respect  from  some  others  who  have 
dealt  with  the  subject,  and  have  directed  their  in- 
vective at  a  man  who,  after  all,  did  nothing  but 
his   duty.1 

But  while  each  of  the  few  details  preserved  con- 
cerning these  days  of  suffering,  bodily  and  mental, 
and  of  disappointment  and  loneliness,  bear  the  same 
impress,  and  point  to  the  absence  of  any  trace  of 
resentment  or  bitterness,  it  was  not  to  the  men  who 
alone  were  allowed  access  to  him  that  the  prisoner 
would  be  likely  to  confide  his  true  anxieties,  his 
fears  or  hopes  ;  or  would  speak  of  himself  and  the 
cause  he  had  championed.  Only  when  his  lips  were 
unsealed  by  delirium  did  the  thoughts  find  vent  by 
which   it  is   not   possible   to  doubt   that   he  had  been 

1  As  an  example  of  similar  justice  done  to  Sirr  by  another  member 
of  the  family,  an  entry  in  Moore's  diary,  dated  August,  1830,  may  be 
cited,  in  which  he  describes  a  visit  from  the  Duke  of  Leinster  of  that 
day  who  called  upon  the  poet,  on  behalf  of  Lady  Campbell,  Lord 
Edward's  daughter,  to  request  him — for  what  reason  does  not  appear — 
to  postpone  the  publication  of  the  biography  upon  which  he  was  then 
engaged.  While  the  Duke  was  still  with  him,  Major  Sirr,  by  a  curious 
coincidence,  left  a  card  upon  Moore,  when  the  latter  discovered  that  his 
visitor  was  known  to  the  Duke,  who  considered  him  ■'  in  his  way  a 
good  sort  of  man." 

21 


322  xtfe  of  Xoro  Bowaro  tfitsGeralo 

incessantly  pursued  during  those  uncompanioned  hours 
of  dead  quiet,  following  upon  the  excitement  of  the 
preceding  weeks,  when  the  mind,  in  the  exhaustion  of 
fever  and  pain,  must  have  been  haunted,  as  the  day 
fixed  for  the  rising  came  and  went,  by  the  images  of 
all  that  might  be  taking  place  outside  his  silent  prison. 
Only  in  the  unconsciousness  of  fever  did  he  rave, 
not  of  his  own  perilous  condition,  nor  of  those  he 
loved  so  well — of  his  mother,  or  Pamela,  or  his 
little  children — but  of  Dublin  in  flames,  of  militia 
and  numbers.  Escaping  in  spirit  from  his  prison 
cell,  he  then  imagined  himself  to  be  leading  on  the 
people  to  the  fight,  and  was  heard  crying  out,  on  the 
evening  before  his  death,  in  a  voice  so  loud  that  the 
shout  reached  the  ears  of  his  fellow-prisoners,  and 
the  people  outside,  mournful  and  sullen,  gathered  in 
the  street  to  listen,  "  Come  on,  come  on !  Damn 
you,   come  on  !  " 

The  conduct  of  the  Government,  in  its  dealings 
with  its  captive,  has  been  severely  criticised.  Those 
responsible  for  the  charge  of  him  have  been  accused 
of  wanton  and  gratuitous  harshness.  In  forming 
an  opinion  on  the  subject,  it  is  necessary  to  take 
into  account  the  nature  of  the  situation,  the  critical 
and  dangerous  condition  of  the  country,  the  immi- 
nence of  the  projected  rebellion,  and  the  menacing 
attitude  of  the  people.  But  it  is  impossible,  while 
making  all  allowances,  to  acquit  the  authorities  of  at 
the  least  a  heartless  absence  of  that  consideration 
which,  in  the  case  of  a  sick  and,  as  the  event  proved, 


Xife  of  Xoro  lEowaro  3fit3(3eralo  323 

a  dying  man,  common  humanity  and  kindness  might 
have  been  expected  to  dictate. 

The  course  they  pursued  in  declining  to  admit, 
up  to  a  few  hours  before  the  end,  any  single  friend 
to  the  prisoner,  even  to  the  exclusion  of  his  wife, 
may  have  been  pardonable  in  men  acting  under  the 
influence  of  panic.1  The  refusal  to  permit  a  personal 
interview  with  his  lawyer  for  the  purpose  of  drawing 
up  a  will  may  be  explained  and  justified  on  the 
like  grounds.  The  removal,  on  the  day  preceding 
his  death,  of  the  officer  who  had  been  placed  in 
charge  of  him,  and  for  whom,  with  his  characteristic 
readiness  to  attach  himself  to  those  about  him,  he  had 
conceived  a  liking,  may  be  interpreted  as  a  tribute  to 
his  singular  power,  so  often  mentioned,  of  inspiring 
affection  in  those  with  whom  he  was  brought  into 
personal  relationship,  and  a  consequent  and  pardonable 
measure  of  precaution.  But  it  is  impossible  to  advance 
the  same  excuses  for  the  fact,  disgraceful  to  all  con- 
cerned, that  so  little  heed  was  paid  to  his  condition 
and  the  consideration  it  demanded,  that  an  execution 
was  allowed  to  take  place,  on  the  day  before  his 
death,  at  the  very  door  of  the  prison,  the  ominous 
sounds  attending  it  being  audible  in  his  cell. 

1  The  assertion  that  Lady  Louisa  Conolly  was  granted  an  earlier 
interview  with  her  nephew  besides  that  which  took  place  a  few  hours 
before  he  died,  seems  to  be  clearly  contradicted,  not  only  by  her  own 
letters,  but  by  that  addressed  by  Lord  Henry  FitzGerald  to  Lord 
Camden,  in  which,  recapitulating  his  causes  of  complaint  against  the 
Government,  he  includes  in  the  list  the  refusal  to  allow  his  family 
admission  to  the  prison  until  his  brother  was  in  a  moribund  condition. 


324  Xife  of  Xoro  Bowaro  tfit3(3eralo 

"  What  noise  is  that  ?  "  he  questioned  eagerly  ;  and 
so  great  a  shock  was  the  answer  given  that,  praying 
earnestly  that  God  would  pardon  and  receive  all  who 
fell  in  the  cause  of  their  country,  he  sank  forthwith 
into  the  unconsciousness  of  delirium. 

For  the  oversight  to  which  this  last  occurrence 
was  attributed  by  Lord  Clare  it  is  just  to  say  that  he 
expressed  his  regret  to  Henry  Fitz Gerald,  adding  the 
assurance — a  somewhat  singular  one — that  it  should 
not  happen  again.  But  that  the  incident  should  have 
taken  place  unknown  to  the  authorities  cannot  but  be 
considered  a  strange  confession  on  the  part  of  those 
charged  with  the  management  of  affairs. 

One  exception  should  be  noted  to  the  rule  of 
exclusion  enforced  against  all  who  might  be  supposed 
to  feel  a  personal  interest  in  the  prisoner.  Lord 
Edward  was  proffered  the  ministrations  of  the  family 
chaplain.  That  he  preferred  to  avail  himself  of  those 
of  the  chaplain  of  the  jail  may  possibly  afford  a  clue 
to  an  explanation  of  the  indulgence,  and  points  to  the 
possibility  that  the  authorities  may  have  had  good 
reason  for  the  relaxation  of  their  severity  in  favour 
of  this  special  gentleman. 

The  Duke  of  Leinster  was  in  England,  detained 
there,  no  doubt,  by  the  critical  condition  of  his  wife, 
whose  death  occurred  only  a  few  months  later,  and 
by  no  lack  of  affection  for  his  hot-headed  brother,  over 
whose  fate  we  hear  of  him  afterwards  as  "  often  crying." 
Of  Lord  Charles,  the  strength  of  whose  feelings  had, 
it   will   be   remembered,   forced    him    to   quit    Dublin 


Hoppner,  pin.x. 


Park. 


Lord  Henry  FitzGerald. 


page  J25. 


Xife  of  Xoro  JEowaro  jfft3(Beralo  325 

some  weeks  earlier,  there  is  no  mention.  His  mother, 
whose  fortitude,  wrote  her  brother,  added  a  respect 
and  dignity  to  her  sufferings  that  no  heart  could  resist, 
ignorant  of  any  imminent  danger,  set  out  for  Ireland 
too  late.  But  Henry  FitzGerald,  only  delaying  long 
enough  to  make  a  vain  attempt  to  obtain  from  the 
Duke  of  Portland  an  order  admitting  him  to  the 
prison,  crossed  the  Channel  at  once,  to  try  what  could 
be  done  on  the  spot. 

He  had  been  given  to  understand  that  his  brother's 
wound  caused  no  anxiety.  On  his  arrival  in  Dublin, 
however,  he  learnt  from  the  surgeons  in  attendance 
that  the  prisoner,  though  considered  by  them  to  be 
making  good  progress,  had  been  in  danger  a  few  days 
earlier.  Of  the  measures  he  took,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, to  induce  the  authorities  to  allow  him 
access  to  his  brother's  cell  he  has  himself  given  an 
account  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Camden,  written  the  day 
after  Lord  Edward's  death,  in  which  he  arraigns,  with 
passionate  bitterness,  the  whole  conduct  of  the  Govern- 
ment towards  the  dead. 

"  I  implored,  I  entreated  of  you  to  let  me  see 
him,"    he    wrote.       "  I    never    begged    hard    before." 

'  OS 

It  was  in  vain.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  remained 
as  inexorable  as  Lord  Clare,  to  whom  he  had  pre- 
viously addressed  himself. 

For  the  present  there  seemed,  at  all  events,  no 
pressing  cause  for  anxiety.  Even  so  late  as  Friday, 
June  1  st,  the  accounts  of  the  prisoner's  condition 
were   still   reassuring,    although    the   news   of  Captain 


326  xtfe  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3fit5<3eralo 

Ryan's  death,  which,  occurring  the  previous  day,  had 
gravely  aggravated  the  peril  of  the  man  to  whom 
it  was  due,  had  been  a  shock  ;  and  the  doctor  stated 
in  his  report  that  his  patient  appeared  more  subject 
than  before,  as  the  pain  subsided,  to  depression  of 
spirits. 

On  the  Saturday  the  execution  of  the  prisoner 
Clinch  took  place,  with  the  effect  upon  the  wounded 
man  which  has  been  described.  No  intimation  of 
the  change  in  his  condition  consequent  upon  it  was, 
however,  given  to  his  relations  ;  while  on  that  very 
day  Stone,  the  officer  to  whom  in  the  absence  of 
any  single  familiar  face  he  had  become  attached,  was 
removed,  a  total  stranger  being  substituted  in  his 
place. 

On  the  Sunday  Lord  Henry  once  more  made  urgent 
entreaty  to  the  Chancellor  for  admission  to  the  prison, 
receiving  a  second  refusal,  the  assurance — somewhat 
equivocally  worded — being  added,  that  should  his 
brother,  as  now  seemed  possible,  arrive  at  a  con- 
dition of  danger  which  might  justify  the  indulgence, 
it  would  give  Lord  Clare  singular  pleasure  to  grant  it. 

That  pleasure  was  quickly  afforded  to  the  Chancellor. 
Towards  evening  on  the  same  day  the  intimation 
was  made  to  Lord  Henry  by  the  surgeons  that  it 
was  unlikely  that  their  charge  would  survive  the 
night.  A  prisoner  named  Dowling,  likewise  confined 
in  Newgate,  had  also  not  only  contrived  the  previous 
night — possibly  by  the  connivance  of  the  same  deputy 
jailor   who    had    cautioned  Neilson  as    to   his  peril — 


%Uc  of  Xoro  JEowaro  3fit36eralo  327 

to  gain  access  for  a  few  moments  to  Lord  Edward, 
then  in  the  unconsciousness  of  delirium,  but  had 
managed  to  convey  a  warning  of  his  condition  to  his 
brother.  "  Seeing  you,  or  any  friend  he  has  con- 
fidence in,  would,  I  think,  be  more  conducive  to  his 
recovery  than  fifty  surgeons,"  wrote  his  fellow-captive, 
adding  the  curious  assurance,  "  We'll  watch  him  as 
well  as  is  in  our  power." 

But  the  time  was  fast  coming  when  the  prisoner 
would  stand  in  need  of  neither  watching  nor  care — 
neither  the  loving,  impotent  care  of  those  in  like 
case  with  himself  as  they  listened  to  the  ravings  which 
reached  their  ears  through  the  thick  walls  ;  nor  of 
that  of  poor  Henry  FitzGerald,  half  maddened  by 
the  thought  of  his  brother,  "  possessed  of  the 
tenderness  of  a  woman  to  all  whom  he  loved,"  left 
alone  in  his  hour  of  greatest  need  ;  nor  yet  of  the 
watchful  care  of  the  Government,  who,  guard  him 
as  they  might,  could  not  shut  the  prison  door  against 
the  great  deliverer. 

He  was  not,  after  all,  to  die  without  a  sight  of 
a  familiar  face.  Information  had  been  sent  to  Lady 
Louisa  Conolly  of  the  condition  of  her  nephew  ; 
and  she  made  a  last  despairing  effort  to  move  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  from  the  almost  incredible  harshness 
of  his  attitude.  But  she  made  it  in  vain.  With 
the  dogged  obstinacy  of  a  weak  man  he  refused,  in 
spite  of  her  entreaties,  to  cancel  the  orders  of  ex- 
clusion. 

"  I    who    never    before    knelt    to    aught    save    my 


328  %\tc  ot  Xorfc  Efcwarfc  3fit3(5eralt> 

God,"  said  Lady  Louisa,  her  confidence  in  the  kind- 
ness and  consideration  of  the  Government  possibly- 
shaken,  "grovelled  at  that  man's  feet  in  vain." 

A  last  expedient,  however,  suggested  itself  to  the 
niece,  Emily  Napier,  by  whom  she  had  been  accom- 
panied in  her  fruitless  quest.  It  was  that,  as  a  last 
resource,  an  appeal  to  the  Chancellor  should  be 
made. 

It  might  have  seemed  a  forlorn  hope,  since  earlier 
in  the  day  he  had  rejected  the  petition  of  the  dying 
man's  brother,  but  it  was  tried.  Dinner  was  scarcely 
over  when  his  house  was  reached  ;  and  Lord  Clare, 
coming  out  to  Lady  Louisa's  carriage,  listened,  not 
without  emotion,  to  her  entreaty.  After  a  moment's 
consideration  he  made  answer  that,  though  it  was  out 
of  the  question  for  him  to  give  her  the  order  for 
admittance  she  solicited,  in  view  of  the  express  decision 
of  the  Council  against  it,  there  was  no  such  obstacle 
to  prohibit  his  taking  her  himself  to  the  prison. 
The  boon  so  long  denied  was  at  length,  only  just 
in  time,  wrung  from  those  who  had  so  persistently 
refused  it. 

Calling  at  Leinster  House  for  Lord  Henry  on 
the  way,  Lady  Louisa  proceeded  at  once  to  Newgate, 
escorted  by  the  Chancellor,  who,  arrived  at  the  prison, 
cleared  the  cell  of  all  other  witnesses,  himself  remaining 
apart,  crying  like  a  woman  at  the  sight  of  the  dying 
man.  It  is  one  thing  to  compass  a  man's  death, 
another  to  see  him  die  ;  and  it  is  curious  to  contrast 
the    Chancellor's   present  attitude    with    the    letter    in 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  3ftt3(3eralo  329 

which,  not  a  fortnight  earlier,  he  had  congratulated 
himself  upon  the  prospect  of  obtaining  such  evidence 
as  would  enable  the  Government  to  bring  the  arch- 
rebel,  at  the  head  of  the  other  leading  traitors,  to 
justice. 

The  visit  had  been  well  timed.  The  delirium  of 
fever  had  passed  into  the  quiet  exhaustion  preceding 
the  end.  That  evening  Lord  Edward  had  asked 
the  surgeon  who  was  attending  him  to  read  to  him 
the  Death  of  our  Lord ;  had,  as  Lady  Louisa  ex- 
pressed it,  "  composed  his  dear  mind  with  prayer "  ; 
and  now  recognised  with  tranquil  satisfaction  his 
brother  and  his  aunt. 

"  It  is  heaven  to  me  to  see  you,"  he  said,  the 
words  marking,  better  than  any  complaint,  what 
the  previous  loneliness  had  been  to  his  clinging  and 
loving  spirit. 

"  I  can't  see  you,"  he  objected  soon  afterwards  ; 
then,  when  Lady  Louisa  shifted  her  position  so 
as  to  bring  herself  within  his  range  of  vision,  he 
kissed  her  hand,  and  smiled  at  her,  "  which  I  shall 
never  forget,"  she  told  Mr.  Ogilvie,  describing  to  him 
the  scene,  "  though  I  saw  death  in  his  dear  face  at 
the  time." 

She  might  well  see  it.  He  had  already  reached  a 
place  to  which  the  echoes  of  this  troublesome  world 
penetrate  but  faintly,  and  where  the  violence  of  grief 
and  joy  is  hushed.  Though  he  had  imagined  Henry 
FitzGerald  to  be  still  in  England,  he  expressed  no 
surprise   at  his  presence,  only  a  quiet  content,  as  the 


33°  %itc  of  %ovo  Eowaro  fit^Gcvalo 

two  brothers  who  had  been  so  dear  to  one  another 
in  life  met  and  kissed  in  the  shadow  of  death. 

"  That  is  very  pleasant,"  he  answered,  on  hearing 
they  were  alone  ;  falling  back  into  silence  while  he 
was  told  of  his  wife's  safe  journey  to  England,  and 
of  her  meeting  with  his  brother  on  the  road. 

"  And  the  children,  too  ? "  he  asked,  adding 
vaguely,  "  She  is  a  charming  woman." 

"  I  knew  it  must  come  to  this,"  he  said  dreamily, 
"  and  we  must  all  go."  Then,  his  mind  wandering 
from  the  present  to  the  past,  with  all  its  schemes 
and  hopes  and  calculations,  he  rambled  a  little,  busy 
again  with  militia  and  numbers,  till  his  aunt  begged 
him  not  to  agitate  himself  by  talking  of  such  subjects. 

"  Well,  I  won't,"  he  said  obediently,  and  presently 
fell  once  more  into  a  condition  of  drowsy  silence, 
his  eyes  resting  the  while  with  full  contentment  on 
his  brother's  face. 

The  time  to  leave  him  came.  Lord  Clare  was 
waiting.  There  was  nothing  more  to  say,  nothing 
to  be  done. 

"  We  told  him,"  said  Lady  Louisa,  "  that  as  he 
appeared  inclined  to  sleep  we  would  wish  him  good- 
night and  return  in  the  morning.  He  said,  '  Do, 
do,'  but  did  not  express  any  uneasiness  at  our 
leaving  him." 

The  pain  of  separation,  the  supreme  bitterness 
of  death,  for  him  was  over. 

And  so  he  parted  from  his  friends.  Gently,  as 
he  had  lived,  he  was  dying.     Not  three  hours   after 


Xife  ot  Xorfc  ]E&war&  3Fit3<3eralt>  331 

Lady    Louisa    had    wished    him    good-night,    he    was 
indeed  sleeping  well,  for  his  spirit  had  passed  away.1 

At  dead  of  night  they  carried  him,  three  days  later, 
to  his  burial  ;  fearing  lest,  in  their  grief  and  indigna- 
tion, the  people  who  had  loved  him  might  be  moved 
to  some  act  of  desperate  vengeance.  They  had  reason 
to  fear  it. 

For  a  Chief 
Grief 
Weeps  with  a  sword. 

"  For  us,"  wrote  Wolfe  Tone,  the  comrade  who, 
knowing  him  little,  honoured  him  much — "  for  us  who 
remain  as  yet,  and  may  perhaps  soon  follow  him,  the 
only  way  to  lament  his  death  is  to  endeavour  to 
revenge  it." 

The  conduct  of  the  Government  towards  him 
whilst  yet  living  was  consistently  carried  out,  by  the 
neglect  of  those  in  authority  to  pay  ordinary  respect 
to  the  dead  by  supplying  the  promised  guard,  to 
secure  the  funeral  from  molestation  at  the  hands  of 
the  Orangemen  employed  to  patrol  the  streets.  The 
coffin  was,  in  consequence,  stopped  no  less  than  four 
times  as  it  passed  from  Newgate  to  St.  Werburgh's 
Church,  in  charge  of  the  young  officer  to  whom 
it  was  entrusted — the  same  who  had  had  the  care  of 

1  The  statement  made  in  a  paper  written  by  Miss  Emily  Napier 
(see  Appendix  to  Life  and  Letters  of  Lady  Sarah  Lennox)  to  the 
effect  that  Lady  Louisa  and  Lord  Henry  remained  until  all  was  over, 
is  clearly  contradicted  both  by  Lady  Louisa's  own  account  and  by  the 
letter  of  the  surgeon  to  her  announcing  the  death  :  "  He  drew  his 
last  breath  at  two  o'clock  this  morning,  after  a  struggle  that  began 
soon  after  his  friends  left  him  last  night." 


332  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jfit3<Beralo 

the  prisoner  till  the  day  preceding  his  death,  and 
who,  with  a  man  named  Shiel,  probably  a  servant 
of  the  FitzGeralds,  was  the  single  mourner  by  whom 
he  was  accompanied  to  his  grave.  It  was  only  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning  that,  orders  having  been 
tardily  despatched  from  the  Castle  to  that  effect,  the 
melancholy  procession  was  permitted  to  reach  its 
destination,  and  the  coffin  was  placed  below  the 
chancel  of  the  church. 

The  arrangement  was  intended  at  the  time  to  be 
merely  temporary.  There,  however,  it  has  remained 
ever  since,  standing  by  itself  in  a  small,  white-washed 
vault,  one  of  many  which  honeycomb  the  ground  below 
the  building.  Above  the  entrance  to  these  vaults  there 
have  been  found,  built  into  the  southern  wall  of  the 
church,  sculptured  figures  bearing  the  arms  of  the 
Geraldines.  Upon  the  outer  case  of  the  coffin,  added 
some  thirty  years  ago,  is  now  inscribed  the  name  of  the 
dead,  with  the  dates  of  birth  and  death.  But  the  story  is 
told,  with  what  amount  of  truth  it  is  impossible  to  say, 
that  seeking  in  vain,  long  years  after  the  funeral  had 
taken  place,  to  identify  her  father's  coffin,  Lord  Edward's 
daughter  was  referred  to  an  old  and  dying  pauper. 
From  him  she  learnt  that,  hanging  about  the  precincts 
of  the  prison  on  that  June  night,  he  had  watched  six 
men  carry  forth  the  coffin  containing  all  that  was  left 
of  the  people's  leader  ;  that  he  had  followed  it  to  its 
resting-place,  had  stolen  into  the  vault  where  it  was  laid, 
and,  remaining  behind  alone  with  the  dead,  had  scratched 
upon    it   with    a  nail  the  initials  E.   F.     It  is  further 


Photo,  by  T.    II'.  Rolleston. 
South  Wall  of  St.  Werburgh's  Church. 


page  3.) 2. 


Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  ffitsGeralo  333 

related  that,  returning  to  the  church,  Lady  Campbell 
found  the  coffin  as  described,  its  solitary  mark  of 
identification  being  the  letters  traced  by  the  pauper's 
hand. 

So  Edward  FitzGerald  lived  and  died  and  was 
buried. 

There  is  a  legend  of  his  race  which  tells  how,  every 
seven  years,  there  may  be  seen  an  Earl  of  Kildare, 
who  rides  across  the  Curragh  on  a  white  charger, 
silver-shod.  And  the  people  say  that  when  the  shoes 
of  the  horse  are  worn  off,  his  master  will  return  to 
destroy  the  enemies  of  Ireland.  But  whether  or  not, 
in  days  to  come,  any  Geraldine  shall  ever  again  set 
himself  to  carry  on  the  old  tradition,  it  is  certain 
that  no  purer  or  more  gallant  and  chivalrous  spirit 
will  ever  rise  to  champion  the  oppressed  than  breathed 
in  Lord  Edward  FitzGerald. 

Whether  he  is  to  be  regarded  as  hero  or  criminal, 
patriot  or  traitor,  must  be  determined,  as  Southey 
declared,  by  a  reference  to  the  maxims  of  eternal 
morality  and  positive  law.  It  is  a  question  each  man 
will  decide  for  himself.  But  whatever  the  answer 
may  be,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  he  was,  in  the  phrase- 
ology of  the  same  writer,  a  martyr  of  rebellion.  It 
is  as  a  martyr  that  his  memory  has  been  kept  green 
by  the  Irish  people. 

"  For  Edward's  precious  blood,"  said  O'Connor 
bitterly,  "  not  even  the  semblance  of  an  inquisition 
has  been  had." 

He   was    wrong.     For   the  blood  of  Edward  Fitz- 


334  Xife  of  Xoro  Eowaro  jHt3<Seralo 

Gerald  inquisition  has  been  made  by  every  generation 
of  his  countrymen  since  the  day  when  he  lay  dead 
in  his  Newgate  cell. 

And  who  shall  pronounce  him  wholly  unfortunate  ? 
He  died,  indeed,  in  the  flower  of  his  manhood,  a 
champion  of  a  lost  cause,  a  soldier  in  the  ranks  of  a 
beaten  army.  But  his  life  was  given  for  that  which  he 
held  to  be  worthy  of  the  sacrifice.  Living,  he  was 
surrounded  by  a  band  of  comrades  who,  whatever  might 
be  their  failings,  were  as  free  from  petty  jealousies  of 
class  and  creed,  ignoble  personal  ambitions,  and  sordid 
private  grudges,  as  any  that  ever  gathered  under  the 
banners  of  his  ancestors  ;  and  he  died — more  fortunate 
than  some  who  have  occupied  his  place  in  the  affections 
of  a  generous,  warm-hearted,  and  unstable  people — 
encompassed  by  the  love  and  the  fealty  of  the  nation 
he  served. 


APPENDIX   A 

FUNERAL    OF    LORD     EDWARD    FITZGERALD 

The  following  letters  from  Lady  Louisa  Conolly  are 
curious  evidence  of  the  indifference  and  negligence 
of  the  ministerial  officials  with  regard  to  Lord 
Edward's  funeral.  The  first  was  docketed  by  Lord 
Henry  FitzGerald  :  "  From  Lady  Louisa  Conolly, 
in  consequence  of  a  complaint  made  to  her  of 
the  indecent  neglect  in  Mr.  Cook's  office,  by  Mr. 
Leeson.  A  guard  was  to  have  attended  at  Newgate, 
the  night  of  my  poor  brother's  burial,  in  order  to 
provide  against  all  interruption  from  the  different 
guards  and  patroles  in  the  streets  : — it  never  arrived, 
which  caused  the  funeral  to  be  several  times  stopped 
in  its  way,  so  that  the  burial  did  not  take  place  till 
near  two  in  the  morning,  and  the  people  attending 
[were]  obliged  to  stay  in  the  church  until  a  pass  could 
be  procured  to  enlarge  them." 

Lady  Louisa  Conolly  to  the  Hon.  John 
Leeson. 

Castletown,  June  13///,  1798. 
Dear  Sir, — 

I  received  both  your  letters,  and  acquainted  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  with  the  neglect  in  Mr.  Cook's  office,  as  I  thought  it 
right  that  he  should  know  it,  to  prevent  mischief  for  the  future 

335 


336  BppenMs 

on  such  occasions.  The  grief  I  have  been  in,  and  still  do  feel, 
is  so  much  above  any  other  sensation,  that  the  want  of  respect  to 
my  feelings  on  that  melancholy  occasion  was  not  worth  any 
notice. 

Dear  sir,  your  humble  servant, 

L.    O.    CONOLLY. 

Lady  Louisa  Conolly  to  William  Ogilvie,  Esq. 

.  .  .  The  dear  remains  were  deposited  by  Mr.  Bourne  in  St. 
Werburgh  Church,  until  the  times  would  permit  of  their  being 
removed  to  the  family  vault  at  Kildare.  I  ordered  everything 
upon  that  occasion  that  appeared  to  me  to  be  right,  considering 
all  the  heart-breaking  circumstances  belonging  to  the  event ; 
and  I  was  guided  by  the  feelings  which  I  am  persuaded  our 
beloved  angel  would  have  had  upon  the  same  occasion,  had  he 
been  to  direct  for  me,  as  it  fell  to  my  lot  to  do  for  him.  I  well 
knew  that  to  run  the  smallest  risk  of  shedding  one  drop  of  blood, 
by  any  riot  intervening  upon  that  mournful  occasion,  would  be 
the  thing  of  all  others  that  would  vex  him  most ;  and  knowing 
also  how  much  he  despised  all  outward  show,  I  submitted  to 
what  I  thought  prudence  required.  The  impertinence  and 
neglect  (in  Mr.  Cook's  office)  of  orders  (notwithstanding  Lord 
Castlereagh  had  arranged  everything  as  I  wished  it)  had  nearly 
caused  what  I  had  taken  such  pains  to  avoid.  However,  happily, 
nothing  happened ;  but  I  informed  Lord  Camden  of  the  neglect, 
for  the  sake  of  others,  and  to  prevent  mischief  on  other  occasions, 
where  a  similar  neglect  might  have  such  bad  consequences. 
You  may  easily  believe  that  my  grief  absorbed  all  other  feelings, 

and  Mr. is  too  insignificant  even  to  be  angry  at.     At  any 

other  time  than  this  his  impertinence  might  amuse  one,  but  now 
it  passes  unnoticed. 


APPENDIX    B 

THE    BILL     OF    ATTAINDER 

The  Attorney-General,  Toler,  brought  in  a  Bill 
of  Attainder,  for  the  purpose  of  confiscating  Lord 
Edward  FitzGerald's  property,  on  July  27th,  1798. 
After  much  discussion  it  was  read  for  the  third  time 
in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  and  passed  by  a 
majority  of  42  to  9.  Having  also  been  passed  by 
the  House  of  Lords,  it  was  sent  to  England  in 
September  for  the  Royal  Assent,  which  it  received 
in  October,  in  spite  of  a  petition  presented  to  the 
King  by  Lord  Henry  FitzGerald,  as  guardian  to 
the  children,  and  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  Charles 
James  Fox,  William  Ogilvie,  Henry  Edward  Fox, 
and  Lord  Holland,  as  their  near  relations.  A  separate 
petition  was  also  presented  by  their  grandmother,  the 
Duchess  of  Leinster.  The  sequel  as  regards  the  estate 
may  be  told  in  Moore's  words.  "  Lord  Clare  having, 
with  the  approbation  of  the  Government,  allowed  the 
estate  to  be  sold  in  Chancery — under  the  foreclosure 
of  a  mortgage  to  which  the  Attorney-General  was  made 
a  party — Mr.  Ogilvie  became  the  purchaser  of  it  for 
£10,500  ;  and  having,  by  his  good  management  of 
the  property,  succeeded  in  paying  off"  the  mortgage 
and  the  judgment  debts,  he  had  the  satisfaction,  at 
the  end  of  a  few  years,  of  seeing  the  estate  restored 

337  22 


338  Bppenfcte 

to  its  natural  course  of  succession  by  settling  it  upon 
Lord  Edward's  son  and  his  heirs  for  ever  "  (Moore's 
Life). 

In  1799  Lady  Louisa  Conolly  and  Mr.  Ogilvie 
applied  in  vain  for  a  reversal  of  the  attainder.  In 
1 8 15,  when  the  position  occupied  by  the  Prince  of 
Wales  as  Regent  offered  a  better  chance  of  success, 
the  matter  was  again  to  be  brought  forward  ;  when, 
in  consequence  of  the  landing  of  Napoleon  in  France, 
Lord  Castlereagh  advised  that  the  question  should 
be  postponed.  Only  in  181 9,  twenty-one  years  after 
Lord  Edward's  death — was  the  attainder  finally 
repealed. 


LIST    OF    PRINCIPAL    AUTHORITIES 


The  Life  and  Death  of  Lord  Edward  Fitz  Gerald.  Thomas 
Moore.     London:   1831. 

The  United  Irishmen^  their  Lives  and  Times.  R.  R.  Madden. 
2nd  Edition.     Series  1,  2.     Dublin  :  1858. 

Personal  Recollections  of  tlie  Life  and  Times,  with  Extracts  from 
the  Correspondence,  of  Valentine,  Lord  Cloncurry.  Dublin  : 
1849. 

Personal  Sketches  of  his  own  Times.  Sir  Jonah  Barrington. 
London  :   1827-32. 

A  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.  W.  E.  H. 
Lecky. 

Pieces  of  Lrish  LListory.     W.  J.  McNevin.     New  York  :   1807. 

Memoirs  of  the  Political  and  Private  Life  of  the  Earl  of 
Charlemont.     F.Hardy.     London:  18 10. 

Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  JLenry  Grattan.  By  his 
Son  :  1839-46. 

The  Age  of  Pitt  and  Fox.     D.  O.  Maddyn  :  1846. 

Revelations  of  Ireland  in  the  Past  Generation.  D.  O.  Maddyn  : 
1848. 

Curious  Family  LListory  ;  or,  Lreland  before  the  Union.  W.  J. 
Fitzpatrick.     Dublin:   1869. 

"  The  Sham  Squire''1  and  the  Lnformers  of  1798.  W.  J.  Fitz- 
patrick.    London  :   1866. 

Memoirs  of  the  LJfe  of  R.  B.  Sheridan.  Thomas  Moore. 
London  :  1825. 

339 


34o  Xist  of  (principal  Butborities 

Sheridan.     A  Biography.     W.  Fraser  Rae.     London  :   1896. 

Curran  and  his  Contemporaries.     C.  Phillips.     Edinburgh  and 
London  :  1850. 

Correspondence  of  Viscount  Castlereagh. 

Personal  Narrative  of  the  Irish  Rebellion  of  1798.      C.    H. 
Teeling.     London :  1828. 

The  Autobiography  of  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone.     Edited  with  an 
Introduction  by  R.  B.  O'Brien.     London:   1893. 

Rogers  and  his  Contemporaries.     P.  W.  Clayden. 

Robert  Southefs  Commonplace  Book. 

The  Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox.     Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan. 
London  :   1880. 

Life  of  Thomas  Reynolds.     Thomas   Reynolds  the    Younger. 
London  :   1839. 

Sketches   of  Irish   Political    Characters   of  the   Present    Day. 
Henry  McDougall.     1799. 

Memoirs  of Madame  de  Gen  lis.     London:   1825. 

Chroniques  Populaires.     Georgette  Ducrest.     Paris  :   1855. 

Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party.     Henry,  third  Lord  Holland. 

Sixty  Years  Ago. 

Life   a?id  Letters   of   Lady   Sarah   Lennox.      Edited   by   the 
Countess  of  Ilchester  and  Lord  Stavordale.     London  :  1901. 

Life  of  J.  P.  Curran.     W.  H.  Curran. 

Recherches  des  Curieux. 

The  Earls  of  Kildare.     Duke  of  Leinster. 

Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

Horace  IValpole's  Letters. 


INDEX 


Abercrombie,  Sir  Ralph,  descrip- 
tion of  the  troops,  276 

America,  war  with,  33  seq. 

American  Civil  War,  184 

Annual  Register,  account  of  Lord 
Edward's  capture,  305 

Armagh,  County,  hostility  there  be- 
tween Catholics  and  Protestants, 
166 

Armstrong,  Captain,  283,  293 

Assassination,  Lord  Edward  charged 
with  advocating,  227-9 

Athy,  Lord  Edward  member  for,  46 

Attainder,  Bill  of,  243  ;  Appendix  B, 

337.  338 
Aubigny,  25 

Bantry  Bay,  French  expedition  to, 

210 
Barere,  Pamela  visits  him,  315 
Barrington,  Sir  Jonah,  quoted,  71 
Basle,  Lord  Edward  at,  206 
Bath,  Pamela  at,  124 
"  Battalion  of  Testimony,"  234 
Belfast,  Republican  celebration  at, 

137 
Bellamont,  Lady,  23 
Bellamont,  Lord,  223 
Belle  Chasse,  Due  d'Orleans  at,  144 
Beresford,  J.  C,  185,  186,  191 
Berry,  Miss,  41 
Bird,  informer,  236 
Bond,  Oliver,  182,  249,  259 
Bowles,  Caroline,  Southey's   letter 

to  her  quoted,  118 
Bristol,   fourth  Earl   of,    Bishop  of 

Deny,  49 


Brixey,  Guillaume  de  Brixey,  117 

Buckingham,  George  Grenville,  first 
Marquis  of,  82 

Bulkeley,  Lord,  269 

Burke,  Edmund,  on  French  Revolu- 
tion, 133 

Burke,  Richard,  160 

Bury,  Madame  de  Genlis  and 
Pamela  at,  129 

Byron,  Lord,  epitaph  on  Lord 
Castlereagh,  220 

Cadiz  expedition,  projected,  96 

Camden,  John  Jeffreys  Pratt,  second 
Earl  and  first  Marquis  of,  Vice- 
roy, 191,  228,  258;  Lord  Henry 
FitzGerald's  letter  to,  325 

Campbell,  Lady.     See  FitzGerald 

Carhampton,  Earl  of,  197 

Carleton,  Lord,  Curran's  description 
of,  288 

Carton,  49 

Castle,  Dublin,  r 

Castlereagh,  Robert  Stewart,  Vis- 
count, his  monument,  4 ;  on 
Government  policy,  191  ;  career 
and  character,  218-20;  266,  267, 
268  ;  283  ;  290 

Castlereagh,  Viscountess,  308 

Catholic  Committee,  106;  Wolfe 
Tone  Assistant  Secretary  of,  107 

Catholic  Convention,  159;  petitions 
Parliament,  160,  and  the  King, 
161  ;  dissolved,  164 

Channel  Islands,  Lord  Edward 
visits,  59 

Charlemont,  Earl  of,  215 


341 


342 


3nfce£ 


Charleston,  Lord  Edward  at,  32 

Chartres,  Due  de,  67 

Chichester,  Lord,  engaged  to  Miss 
Ogilvie,  100,  10 1 

Chnstchurch,  Hampshire,  Pamela 
brought  from,  118 

Christchurch  Cathedral,  Dublin,  1-3 

City  Hall,  Dublin,  2 

Civrac,  Duchesse  de,  120 

Clanwilliam,  Countess  of,  60 

Clanwilliam,  Earl  of,  53 

Clare,  John  Fitzgibbon,  first  Earl  of, 
216,  224,  225,  252,  263,  268,  269, 
324,  325,  326  ;  takes  Lady  Louisa 
Conolly  to  Newgate  Jail,  328 

Clinch,  his  execution,  326 

Cloncurry,  Valentine  Lawless,  Lord, 
113,  217 

Clonmel,  Lord,  189,  257 

Cobbett,  William,  quoted,  81 

Conolly,  Lady  Louisa,  affection  for 
Lord  Edward,  52,  70;  confidence 
in  Lord  Castlereagh,  220 ;  266  seq., 
276,  277,  309  seq.  ;  appeal  to  Lord 
Camden,  327  ;  and  Lord  Clare, 
328 ;  last  interview  with  Lord 
Edward,  328-30 ;  letters  re  his 
funeral,  Appendix  A,  335,  336 

Conolly,  Thomas,  24,  70 ;  gives 
Lord  Edward  Kildare  Lodge, 
174;   175,  223,  272 

Convention  Act,  167 

Cooke,  Under-Secretary,  227,  236, 
297 ;  neglect  in  his  office,  Ap- 
pendix, 335,  336 

Cope,  Mr.,  258 

Cork  House,  2 

Cormick,  289 

Cornwallis,  Marquis,  tribute  to 
General  O'Hara,  47 

Cowley,  Robert,  17 

Cox,  the  informer,  10,  127,  128 

Cromwell,  Secretary,  17 

Curran,  John  Philpot,  187,  191,  199, 
235,  237,  243-5 

Dalrymple,  General,  289  {note) 

"  Defenders,"  166 

Deffand,  Madame  du,  103 

De  La  Croix,  French  Minister,  206 


Delany,  Mrs.,  her  letters  re  Duchess 

of  Leinster's  marriage,  22-3 
Dempsey,  186 

Denzille  Street,  Pamela  at,  272 
Devonshire,  Duchess  of,  57 
Dillon,  Mrs.,  shelters  Lord  Edward, 

284-8,  291-5 
Directory,       French,      negotiations 

with,  187,  201,  205-7 
Directory,    Leinster,    249,    259 ;    its 

arrest,  261  ;  reconstructed,  274 
Donat,  Bishop  of  Dublin,  1 
Donegal],  Earl  of,  101 
Dowling,  prisoner  in  Newgate,  326, 

327 
Doyle,  Sir  John,  quoted,  39,  40 
Dublin  society,  105 
Dublin  Magazine,  221 
Dublin  and  the  Geraldines,  1-4 
Dundas,  Mr.,  269 

Edward  III.,  King,  14 

Emmet,  Robert,  235 

Emmet,  Thomas  Addis,  182;  ex- 
amined before  Secret  Committee, 
186,  200;  213  ;  250 

FitzGerald,  Colonel,  297 
FitzGerald,  Edward  Fox,   birth   of, 

177,  178;  318  (note) 
FitzGerald,  George,   sixteenth  Earl 

of  Kildare,  18 
FitzGerald,  George  Robert,  48,  49 
FitzGerald,  Gerald,   eighth  Earl  of 

Kildare,  3,  15 
FitzGerald,    Gerald,  ninth   Earl   of 

Kildare,  16 
FitzGerald,    Gerald,    tenth   Earl  of 

Kildare,  17 
FitzGerald,  James.     See  first  Duke 

of  Leinster 
FitzGerald,    James,    magistrate    in 

Fogo,  117 
FitzGerald,    Lady    Edward.      See 

Pamela 
FitzGerald,  Lord  Charles,  83,  219, 

266,  267,  269 
FitzGerald,  Lord  Edward,  his  grave, 

4 ;  his  career,  5-7  ;  character,  7-9 ; 

unfitted  for  leadership,  10  ;  birth, 


Snbcx 


343 


12;  childhood,  21;  boyhood  in 
France,  25  ;  education,  26  ;  enters 
the  militia,  28  ;  lieutenant  in  26th 
Regiment,  29 ;  in  Ireland,  30  ; 
goes  to  America,  32  ;  aide-de-camp 
to  Lord  Ravvdon,  37 ;  narrow 
escape,  38 ;  wounded  at  Eutaw 
Springs,  39 ;  popularity  in  the 
army,  40;  at  St.  Lucia,  41-5; 
return  to  England,  45  ;  member 
for  Athy,  46  ;  distaste  for  home 
life,  47,48;  canvasses  Westminster 
for  Fox,  50,  51 ;  life  in  Ireland  and 
first  love  affair,  53  ;  at  Woolwich, 
57 ;  in  the  Channel  Islands,  59 ; 
at  Goodwood  and  Stoke,  60,  61  ; 
rejoins  his  mother,  65  ;  at  Dublin, 
66  ;  increasing  interest  in  politics, 
ibid. ;  in  opposition,  68 ;  social 
and  political  position,  69  ;  visits 
Spain  and  Portugal,  71  ;  in  New 
Brunswick,  73 ;  letters  to  his 
mother,  75-87 ;  journey  to  Quebec, 
89 ;  intercourse  with  natives,  91,92; 
at  New  Orleans,  92  ;  disappoint- 
ment, 93 ;  offered  command  of 
Cadiz  expedition,  96 ;  declines, 
on  being  returned  member  for 
County  Kildare,  98  ;  in  London, 
102-5  ;  in  Dublin,  105  ;  at  Paris, 
133 ;  revolutionary  sympathies, 
137 ;  takes  part  in  Republican 
demonstration,  141  ;  meets 
Pamela,  146 ;  marriage,  149 ; 
cashiered,  150;  in  Dublin,  157; 
effect  of  cashierment,  158,  159; 
protest  in  Parliament,  162,  163  ; 
isolation  in  the  House,  167  ;  and 
elsewhere,  169,  170;  settles  on 
Kildare  Lodge  as  a  home,  175  ; 
at  Frescati,  175,  176  ;  birth  of  his 
son,  177;  development  of  opinions, 
180,  181  ;  character,  183  seq.  ;  in- 
timacy with  O'Connor,  192  ;  in- 
cident on  the  Curragh,  194,  195  ; 
joins  United  Irish  Association, 
198 ;  opposes  Insurrection  Act, 
199;  delegate  to  French  Govern- 
ment, 202  ;  at  Hamburg,  203-6  ; 
and    Basle,    ibid.  ;     indiscretion, 


207  ;  declines  to  seek  re-election, 
223  ;  charges  against  him,  227-9  >' 
meets  French  agent  in  London, 
229  ;  meeting  with  Reynolds,  232, 
238-40 ;  described  by  Murphy  and 
Lord  Holland,  247,  248  ;  on  first 
Leinster  Director)',  249  ;  reported 
conversation,  250,  251  ;  visited  by 
Reynolds,  259;  eludes  arrest, 
263;  in  hiding,  271;  visits  his 
wife,  273;  his  position,  279-81; 
in  hiding,  284  seq.  ;  last  visit  to 
Pamela,  289;  reward  offered  for 
his  apprehension,  293 ;  last  in- 
terview with  Mr.  Ogilvie,  295,  296  ; 
proposes  attack  on  House  of 
Lords,  296,  297  ;  tracked  and  cap- 
tured, 303, 304;  a  prisoner,  305, 306, 
321  seq. ;  last  interview  with  his 
aunt  and  brother,  328-30  ;  death 
and  funeral,  331-3 

FitzGerald,  Lord  Henry,  Lord 
Edward's  affection  for,  70,  83  ; 
member  for  City  of  Dublin,  99; 
retires  from  Parliament,  223,  312, 
317  ;  letter  to  Lord  Camden,  325, 
326,  327  ;  last  interview  with  Lord 
Edward,  328-30 

FitzGerald,  Lord  Thomas,  executed 
at  Tyburn,  16,  17 

FitzGerald,  Maurice,  first  crosses  to 
Ireland,  13 

FitzGerald,  Maurice,  fourth  Earl  of 
Kildare,  2,  14 

FitzGerald,  Pamela,  afterwards 
Lady  Campbell,  Lord  Edward's 
daughter,  birth  of,  206;  273;  321 
{note),  322 ;  323 

FitzStephen,  Robert,  crosses  to 
Ireland,  13 

Fitzwilliam,  Earl  of,  Viceroy,  190 ; 
recalled,  191 

Flood,  Henry,  48 

Force,  Due  de  la,  description  of 
Pamela,  153 

Forth,  Mr.,  sends  Pamela  to  France, 
119 

Fox,  Charles  James,  33,  34  ;  elected 
member  for  Westminster,  50 ; 
letter  to  Lord  Henry  FitzGerald, 


344 


3nfce£ 


88, 99 ;  friendship  for  Lord  Edward, 
102 ;  appealed  to  by  Madame  de 
Genlis,  125 ;  protests  against 
Lord  Edward's  cashierment,  150; 
quoted,  254,  317 

French  expedition,  210;  its  failure, 
211 

Frescati,  Duchess  of  Leinster's 
home,  50;  Lord  Edward's  early 
married  life  at,  175  seq. 

Genlis,  Madame  de  (also  called 
Madame  de  Sillery),  Lord  Edward 
declines  to  meet,  113  ;  her  account 
of  Pamela's  origin,  116, 117;  adopts 
Pamela,  119;  visits  England  and 
receives  doctor's  degree,  123  ; 
Walpole's  opinion  of,  123;  re- 
visits England,  124;  letter  to 
Fox,  126;  Sheridan's  guest, 
128-30 ;  return  to  France,  143  ; 
scene  with  Due  d'Orleans,  147, 
148 ;  her  account  of  Pamela's 
marriage,  149,  172,  173  ;  meets 
FitzGeralds  at  Hamburg,  203  seq. 

Gettisburg,  charge  at,  184 

Gherardini,  the,  of  Florence,  an- 
cestors of  Geraldines,  13 

Gibraltar,  Lord  Edward  at,  71 

Godwin,  William,  on  Fox's  oratory, 
103;  one  of  Paine's  circle,  111 

Goodwood,  Lord  Edward  at,  60 

Grattan,  Henry,  his  grave,  4  ;  motion 
on  tithes,  68  ;  member  for  City  of 
Dublin,  99  ;  on  Irish  Government, 
161  ;  regrets  defiance,  ibid;  op- 
poses Convention  Act,  167;  loyalty 
to  Great  Britain,  168;  190,  191, 
192,  199;  attitude  towards  United 
Irishmen,  2 1 3  seq.,  220, 22 1 ;  retires 
from  Parliament,  223 ;  gives  evi- 
dence at  O'Connor's  trial,  255 

Gunpowder  Bill,  167 

Habeas  Corpus  Act,  suspension  of, 

210 
Halifax,  Lord  Edward  at,  76 
Hamburg,  Lord  Edward  at,  203 
Henry,     Mr.,    visits    Lady     Sarah 

Napier,  277 


Henry  VII.,  King,  15 

Henry  VIII.,  King,  16 

Higgins,  the  informer,  293,  294,  297, 

300 
Hoche,    General,    206,    and    Wolfe 

Tone,  208  ;  death  of,  252 
Holland,    Lady,  her   diary  quoted, 

313 

Holland,  third  Lord,  217;  descrip- 
tion of  Lord  Edward,  247, 248,  317; 
quoted,  320 

Hughes,  Mr.,  289 

Inchiquin,  Lady,  30 

Indians,  Lord  Edward's  intercourse 

with,  90-2 
"  Informers'  Home,"  234 

Jackson,  Rev.  William,  187  seq. 
Johns,  St.,  New  Brunswick,    Lord 
Edward  quartered  at,  76  seq. 

Lake,  General,  255 
Larochejacquelin,      Marquise      de, 

anecdote  of  Pamela,  120 
Lawless,  Mr.,  United  Irishman,  284, 

290 
Lawless,  Valentine.    See  Cloncurry 
Leeson,    Hon.   John,   Lady  Louisa 

Conolly's  letter  to,  Appendix  A, 

335 
Legend  of  Earls  of  Kildare,  333 
Leinster  Directory.     See  Directory 
Leinster,  Duchess  of,  Lady  Emilia 
Lennox,    her    second    marriage, 
22-5 ;  relations  with  Lord  Edward, 
27,  32,  55,  60,  65  ;  Lord  Edward's 
letters  to,  28,  31,  32,  44,  47,  55-63, 
65,  66,  68,  72,  73,   75-81,   84-87, 
91,   105,  137,   138,  141,   142,   153, 
169,   171,   174,   175,   176;  conduct 
on  his  marriage,   152,  153;  letter 
about  Pamela,  156;  view  of  the 
effect   of    his   cashierment,    1 58 ; 
interview  with  Prince  of  Wales, 
318  {note) 
Leinster,  first  Duke  of,  and  twentieth 
Earl  of  Kildare,  Lord  Edward's 
father,  18,  19  ;  death  of,  21 
Leinster,  William,  second  Duke  of, 


3n&e$ 


345 


described,  52 ;  supports  Govern- 
ment, 83  ;  Master  of  the  Rolls, 
84 ;  member  of  Whig  Club,  106, 
170;  resigns  command  of  militia, 
223  ;  affection  for  Lord  Edward, 

324 
Leinster  House,  177,  263,  264 
Lennox,     Georgina,     52,     53,     75 ; 

marries  Lord  Apsley,  93 
Lennox,  Lady  Emilia.    See  Duchess 

of  Leinster 
Lennox,  Lady  Sarah.     See  Napier 
Lennox,  Lord  George,  52 
Lewines,  agent  at  Paris,  229,  252, 

279 
Liancourt,  Due  de,  125 
Longueville,  Lord,  193 
Louis  XVI.,  execution  of,  165 
Lucia,  St.,  Lord  Edward  quartered 

at,  41 
Lynch,  Mr.,  tutor  to  Lord  Edward, 

21 

MacDougall,     Henry,     on     Lord 

Edward,  9 
Madden,    Dr.,    quoted   8,    194,    250 

seq. 
Magan,  Francis,  the  informer,  293, 

294,  297-9,  304,  308 
Maidstone,  O'Connor  tried  at,  253 
Margate,  O'Connor  captured  at,  253 
Martial  law  proclaimed,  276 
Martinique,  Lord  Edward  visits,  42 
Mary  les  Dames,  Church  of  St.,  1,  2 
McNally,    Leonard,    the    informer, 

228,  235,  253,  256,  257 
McNevin,  William  James,  228,  249, 

250,  263 
Meade,  Lady  Catherine,  Lord  Ed- 
ward's first  love,  53  seq. 
Militia  raised,  223 
Moira,    Francis   Rawdon   Hastings, 

Earl  of,  221,  255,  257 
Moira,  Lady,  307 
Moore,  Miss,  295,  300 
Moore,   public-house    keeper,    295, 

297,  299 
Moore,  Thomas,  on  Reynolds,  237  ; 

247 ;  321  {note) ;  quoted  Appendix 

B,  337,  338 


Murphy,  feather  merchant,  247,  288, 
295.  299»  3OI>  32° 

Nantes,  Comte  Francais  de,  on 
Paine,  ill 

Napier,  Colonel,  309,  310,  317 

Napier,  Emily,  267,  308,  328,  331 
{note) 

Napier,  Lady  Sarah,  Lord  Edward's 
aunt,  20,  quoted  24 ;  anecdote  of 
Prince  of  Wales,  52 ;  quoted  83, 
93,  100,  101,  121  {note),  155,  156, 
222,  226,  246,  265  seq.,  272,  273, 
277 ;  dislike  of  Lord  Castlereagh, 
220 

Napier,  Louisa,  308 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  252 

National  Battalion,  161  seq. 

Neilson,  Samuel,  United  Irishman, 
182,  242,  287,  288,  289,  302,  318, 

319 

Newell,  the  informer,  236 
Newgate   Jail,  Lord   Edward   con- 
fined in,  309  seq. 

O'Brien,    Jemmy,     the     informer, 

234 

O'Byrne,  Mrs.,  234 

O'Connor,  Arthur,  enters  Parlia- 
ment, 99,  192  ;  views  and  opinions, 
193,  194 ;  delegate  to  French 
Government,  202  seq. ;  charges 
against,  127,  128;  252  seq.,  quoted 

333 

Ogilvie,  Cecilia,  engaged  to  Lord 
Chichester,  100,  101 

Ogilvie,  William,  marries  Duchess 
of  Leinster,  22  ;  Lord  Edward's 
affection  for,  26,  56-60 ;  Lord 
Edward's  letter  to,  85  ;  interview 
with  Lord  Clare,  224,  225  ;  re- 
garded with  suspicion,  184;  last 
interview  with  Lord  Edward,  295, 
296 

O'Hara,  General,  at  St.  Lucia,  41  ; 
at  Gibraltar,  71,  72 

O'Kelly,  Major,  264,  265 

Orleans,  Duchesse  d',  122 

Orleans,   Louis    Philippe,    Due    d' 

23 


346 


3nfce£ 


{Egalite),  reputed  to  be  father 
of  Pamela,  116;  relations  with 
Madame  de  Genlis,  122  ;  meeting 
at  Belle  Chasse,  144 ;  conversa- 
tion at  Rainsy,  147,  148 

Orleans,  Mademoiselle  Adelaide  d', 
in  England,  24-6 ;  returns  to 
France,  143  seq. ;  provides 
Pamela's  funeral,  315 

Otho,  Dominus,  13 

Paine,  Thomas,  author  of  Rights 
0/  Man,  109-14,  188 

Pakenham,  Mr.,  266  seq. 

Pamela,  birth  and  origin,  1 15-18; 
adopted  by  Madame  de  Genlis, 
119;  early  training,  120,  121; 
visit  to  England  and  to  Walpole, 
123  ;  second  visit  to  England,  124 ; 
Southey's  description  of,  ibid.  ; 
meets  Sheridan,  127;  his  offer  of 
marriage,  129  ;  returns  to  France, 
130;  meets  Lord  Edward,  146; 
marries  him,  149 ;  character  and 
portrait,  153-5  !  relations  with 
FitzGerald  family,  156;  early 
married  days,  170  seq.  ;  meets 
Madame  de  Genlis  at  Hamburg, 
203  seq. ;  246  ;  264,  265,  268  seq. ; 
last  meeting  with  Lord  Edward, 
289 ;  conduct  after  his  capture, 
after-life,  and  death,  307  seq. 

Paris,  Lord  Edward  in,  138  seq. 

Parnell,  Sir  John,  200 

"  Peep  o'  Day  Boys,"  166 

Pelham,  Chief  Secretary,  218,  228, 
287 

Ponsonby,  George,  189,  191,  216, 
310 

Portland,  Duke  of,  179;  in  the 
Cabinet,  190  ;  258  ;  385 

Press  newspaper,  253,  254 

Quebec,  Lord  Edward's  journey  to, 


Ranelagh,  Republican  celebration 

at,  137 
Rawdon,  Lord,  ^7.     See  also  Moira 


Reform,  agitation  for,  106,  161 

Regency  Bill,  88 

Reinhard,  French  Minister  to  Han- 

seatic  towns,  10,  205,  206 
Revolution,  French,  enthusiasm  for, 

135.  136 
Reynolds,    Thomas,    the    informer, 

232,  236  seq.  ;  256  seq. 
Reynolds,  Thomas,  junior,  quoted, 

237,  238,  241,  242  {note) 
Richmond,   third  Duke  of,  22,  35 ; 

disagreement  with  Lord  Edward, 

50 ;    Lord   Edward  yields  to   his 

judgment,  86  ;  offers  Lord  Edward 

command    of    Cadiz    expedition, 

96-99 ;  efforts  on  Lord  Edward's 

behalf,  317 
Rickman,  Mr.,  Thomas  Paine's  host, 

109  ;  his  guests,  112 
Rights  of  Man,  by  Paine,  109 
Rochford,  221 
Rogers,  Samuel,  party  at  house  of, 

125 
Romney,     the     painter,     guest     of 

Paine's,  1 1 1 
Rousseau,  J.  J.,  influence  on  Lord 

Edward,   97  ;    Walpole's  opinion 

of,  123 
Rowan,  Hamilton,   escape  of,  282, 

283 
Rutland,   Charles    Manners,    fourth 

Duke  of,  Viceroy,  67  ;  death  of,  71 
Ryan,     Captain,     assists    in     Lord 

Edward's  capture,  303,  304 ;  death 

of,  326 

Sandford,  Miss,  30 
September  Massacres,  139 
"  Sham  Squire."     See  Higgins 
Sheares,  the  brothers,  United  Irish- 
men, Grattan  on,  216;   283,  291, 

293 

Sheridan,  Mrs.,  Lord  Edward's 
friendship  with,  127 

Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley,  meets 
Pamela,  125  ;  describes  her,  126; 
relations  with  his  wife,  127,  128  ; 
entertains  Madame  de  Genlis  and 
Pamela,  129 ;  proposes  to  Pamela, 
ibid.;  second  marriage,  131 


Snfces 


347 


Shiel,  only  mourner  at  Lord  Ed- 
ward's funeral,  332 

Sillery,  Madame  de.     See  Genlis 

Sillery,  M.  de,  147,  148 

Sims,  Mary,  117,  118 

Sims,  Nancy.     See  Pamela 

Sirr,  Charles  Henry,  his  grave,  4 ; 
at  Gibraltar,  71  ;  Town  Major, 
298  ;  captures  Lord  Edward,  303, 
304 ;  32 1  ;  note,  ibid. 

Smith,  Sir  R.,  at  revolutionary 
meeting  in  Paris,  141 

Southey,  Robert,  accounts  of  Pamela 
quoted,  118,  124;  on  Lord  Ed- 
ward, 333 

Stanhope,  Lord,  on  Thomas  Paine, 
in 

Stewart,  Robert.     See  Castlereagh 

Stone,  J.  H.,  presides  at  revolu- 
tionary meeting,  141  ;  introduces 
Lord  Edward  to  Pamela,  146 

Stone,    ,    in    charge    of    Lord 

Edward  in  prison,  326 

Strongbow,  Earl,  I 

Swan,  Major,  303 

Talleyrand,  260 

Teeling,  Charles,  quoted  171  ;  185, 
218 

Tone,  Theobald  Wolfe,  6 ;  chief 
founder  of  United  Irish  Society, 
106 ;  aims  of,  107 ;  Tone  and 
Lord  Edward,  109;  opinion  of 
Catholic  Relief  Bill,  164;  com- 
ment upon  execution  of  Louis 
XVI.,  165;  181,  182;  in  Paris, 
201  ;  interview  with  Hoche,  208, 
209  ;  at  BantryBay,  211  ;  quoted 

231-  331 
Tony,  Lord  Edward's  negro  servant, 

39,  73,  78,  85,  263,  272 
Tooke,  J.  Home,  disciple  of  Paine, 

in 


Tournay,  Lord  Edward  married  at, 

149 
Tuite,  carpenter,  297 

Union  Star  newspaper,  227,  228 
United      Irish     Association,      106 ; 

earlier  aims,  107,  108  ;  oath,  108  ; 

suppressed,    190 ;    reconstructed, 

198;  joined  by  Lord  Edward,  ibid. ; 

advances  made  by  its  leaders  to 

Parliamentary    opposition,    213  ; 

Grattan  and  United  Irishmen,  215 

seq. 

Volunteer  Convention,  49 
Volunteers,   later  developments  of, 
162 

Wales,    Prince   of,    supports    Fox, 

51  ;    kindness    concerning    Lord 

Edward,     317  ;      letter     to     Mr. 

Ogilvie,  318;  note,  ibid. 
Walpole,    Horace,    quoted    50,    82, 

100,  123,  129 
Watson,  Mr.,  Lord  Camden's  private 

secretary,  306 
Werberga,  Saint,  2 
Werburgh's  Church,  St.,  2,  4  ;  Lord 

Edward  buried  there,  331,  332 
Westmeath,  Earl  of,  262 
Westminster  Election,  50 
Westmorland,     John     Fane,    tenth 

Earl  of,  Viceroy,   160,    173,    174; 

recall,  190 
Whig  Club,  formation  of,  106 
White's   Hotel,   Paris,    meeting   at, 

140,  141 
Whiteboy  disturbances,  66 
Wicklow,  County,  174 
Wollstonecraft,  Mary,  11 1 

York,    Duke   of,    liking    for    Lord 

Edward,  317 
Yorktown,      surrender     of     British 

forces  at,  41 


Printed  by  Hazed,  Watson  <S=  Viney,  Ld.,  London  and  Aylesbury,  England. 


s 


' 


Date 

Due 

JW261© 

1       II  AV      1 

MAY    I  - 

}  1999 

MAR      1 

2  ZuOO 

MAM 

//* 

"%$H 

;« 

f) 

. 

^*#*y 


42749 


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